


Past Flaws

by notaverse



Series: JE Fleet [4]
Category: Johnny's Entertainment, KAT-TUN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Chair Sex, M/M, Military, Space Pirates, uke!Jin
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2011-10-01
Updated: 2011-10-01
Packaged: 2017-10-24 05:36:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 53,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/259576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notaverse/pseuds/notaverse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Akanishi Jin runs away from Earth, falling in with thieves along the way, the last thing he expects is to attract the attention of rookie Lunar/InterPlanetary Security officer, Kamenashi Kazuya.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> **Title:** JE Fleet IV: Past Flaws  
>  **Series:** JE Fleet  
>  **Fandom:** KAT-TUN  
>  **Pairing:** Kame x Jin (warning: slight Yamapi x Jin at start)  
>  **Rating:** R (m/m activity)  
>  **Genre:** AU, crack, sci-fi  
>  **Disclaimer:** I don't own any of the guys or random song lyrics that appear in this fic.
> 
> This is the fourth fic in the JE Fleet series, but it also happens to be a prequel, beginning six years before the start of JE Fleet I, 'Personal Space'. I don't advise reading this one if you haven't read the first three.

When Akanishi Jin was upset, everyone knew it. Even the door, which ordinarily enjoyed thwarting him, had the sense to behave itself. It gave way under his kick without so much as a groan of protest. Jin stormed through and slammed it so hard the walls rattled, causing a small 'ALL SHOES 20% OFF!' sign to fall down outside into the courtyard below.

A hundred years ago, the building had been one of the most popular shopping complexes in Shibuya - right up until a carefully orchestrated crimewave had sent shoppers scurrying from the area, putting stores out of business and driving down the property value enough that the Kitagawa Family had been able to pick it up for a song. (The song in question being Queen's 'I Want It All'.) Since then, the complex had undergone a radical conversion into a domestic dwelling, though the occasional sale sign remained as a reminder of its more commercial origins. There were fabulously kitsch reception rooms, a kitchen that consumed half a department store, and the sheer number of bedrooms was staggering.

Despite the choice available, Jin still shared a room with his best friend, Yamashita Tomohisa, lately nicknamed 'Yamapi' by JE Fleet Captain Takizawa Hideaki. They'd lived in the same comfortable, pink-and-black twin bedroom for almost seven years, and although they'd been working for old man Kitagawa more than long enough to demand more reasonable quarters, they were happy enough with their living arrangements.

It was their working arrangements that Jin had a problem with.

Yamapi looked up in alarm as Jin proceeded to slam the door a second time, just to make himself feel better. "What's wrong? Your team lose the match?"

Jin glowered at him; a keen soccer player, he played forward for his local team. "Our goalkeeper's just been arrested for manslaughter so they cancelled the game. But that was last week, Pi! Pay attention."

"Sorry." Yamapi shrugged and turned back to his desk to finish packing his bag. "So what *are* you mad about?"

"I'm not mad."

"Of course not. You're just burning a hole in the wall with your eyes because you're so full of joy."

Joy was an emotion Jin had lately been feeling in ever decreasing quantities. "I'll tell you over dinner. Maybe food'll cheer me up."

Yamapi stuffed one final shirt haphazardly in his bag, tried to zip it closed, and ended up wrestling it into submission. It was a close match - the bag was a tricky opponent. "Won't be around for dinner," he said breathlessly. "I've got to head to the spaceport in about an hour. Toma's meeting me there and we're both on the first flight to Luna City Major. Got an appointment."

Ikuta Toma, along with Hasegawa Jun and Kazama Shunsuke, had been stationed permanently with the Sapporo branch of the family since last year, and neither Jin nor Yamapi had seen their former companions in all that time. From Yamapi's eager smile, it was obvious he was looking forward to a reunion.

Jin scowled. "You're always going off-world on business. The old man won't let me go by myself anymore, or even with you. I don't know what trouble he thinks I'm going to get into..."

"Well, there's the time we got caught up in a shoot-out on Neptune...or that restaurant on Deimos when the chef tried to kill you for dissing his desserts...or-"

"I get your point."

Kicking off his boots, Jin sprawled flat on his bed and stared up at the ceiling. He'd stuck fluorescent stars all over it when he was he was fourteen; when he switched off the lights at night, he could map his travels round the Milky Way. Not that he'd have any more of those, if the old man had his way.

It wasn't fair. Jin had no intention of letting his life dry up at the grand old age of twenty, but it didn't seem as though he was going to have much choice in the matter. It wasn't like he hadn't been outside Earth's local space before, and he'd enjoyed every second of it.

Well, almost every second. There were distinct disadvantages to working on the less-than-legal side of the law for a living, in that you often had to take roundabout routes, couldn't tell anybody the truth, and had to have an escape plan. You also couldn't count on getting bailed out if you got into trouble.

When they were kids, it was a lot simpler. Juvenile runaways were welcome in old man Kitagawa's place, because children could go places adults couldn't without arousing suspicion, and when Yamapi had persuaded Jin to leave his family and join him as an errand runner, Jin had been content to work with his friend to carry messages. The tasks were light, right up until Jin had been sent to Ross 154, masquerading as an orphan and carrying banned chemicals in his bag.

After that, things had changed. He'd been given greater responsibility, sent further off-world. It didn't matter what the assignment was - somehow, Jin would always find a way to make it work, even if it meant exercising his creative flair a little. He and Yamapi had eventually stopped working as a team, but their friendship - and more, sometimes - easily outlasted their working relationship.

Except when Yamapi got to fly out to Lunacy, as Lunar City Major was colloquially known, while Jin was spending all his time collecting protection pay-offs round Tokyo. He hadn't been given much of an explanation for the sudden curtailment of his freedom. All the old man was willing to say was that Jin was more useful to him on Earth.

Useful for what exactly, Jin didn't know, since there were dozens of others in the house fulfilling more or less the same role, but it hadn't escaped his notice how people looked at him now. He'd gained a little height and filled out some, letting his hair grow long enough to curl, and he'd switched hair dyes to a more natural-looking brown. He was no longer, as Yamapi kidded him, a gangly blond matchstick.

The changes were only superficial, but they made Jin feel more adult when he looked in the mirror.

Yamapi interrupted his silent musings. "Don't sulk, or I'll have to tickle you out of it before I leave."

Jin immediately pulled his shirt closed where it gaped open to reveal a glimpse of stomach and seized a hot pink pillow in his other hand, all prepared to defend his ticklish collarbone. Yamapi ignored these precautions and threw himself onto Jin's bed, letting out a muffled war cry as the pillow smacked him in the mouth.

"What's in that thing? Rocks?" he asked, checking his lips for damage.

"You should know. It's your pillow."

Yamapi snatched it up, looked it over, and threw it across to his own bed. "Stop stealing my stuff."

"Then don't fling it at me in the middle of the night when you're trying to get my attention," Jin suggested.

"How do you know I wasn't having a fit and hurled it at you by accident?"

"Because you followed it up by asking me if I had any chocolate."

"Ah!" Yamapi's face lit up in comprehension. "I remember. You didn't have any." He settled down next to Jin, no longer trying to tickle him. "Want anything from Lunacy?"

"How about a one-way ticket off this planet?"

Yamapi regarded him seriously. "I don't think they sell those at the gift shop. Are you that fed up? Really?"

Jin sighed, shifting on the bed so there was enough room for the two of them to lie comfortably. He had to turn on his side to do it. Yamapi had gained weight as well, since the last time. They were no longer the same scrawny pair of runaways who'd snuggled down together their first night in the house because they were so scared, nor were they the hormonal teenagers driven crazily into each other's arms by an overwhelming combination of lust and deepening attraction.

They were merely friends - the very best.

And friends comforted each other. Yamapi turned as well, cuddling up against Jin's back so Jin could feel warm puffs of air tickling his neck.

"I thought you had to go to the spaceport?" Jin tried hard not to sound sullen, but failed miserably.

"In an hour, I said. You don't listen, Bakanishi."

"Akanishi!" Jin corrected grumpily.

Yamapi curled an arm round his waist and gave a gentle squeeze. "That's what I said. Hey, maybe if I talk to the old man you could go with me? I'm sure Toma'd like to see you again. We're only going there to be impartial witnesses to a deal - it's not like there's anything dangerous about it."

"I don't think it's danger he's worried about."

It was comfortable, spooning together on the black and white duvet. Jin could almost pretend it was three years ago, before Yamapi had developed his poorly-concealed crush on Captain Takki, back when Jin was the only person he wanted and both of them were happy with that. But things hadn't been that way for a long time, and somewhere along the line, the sparks had fizzled out.

"Anyway," Jin continued, "I'd still have to come back here afterwards. This house, this country...this planet. Haven't you ever wanted something more, Pi? To go out _there_ , where everything hasn't already been mapped to within an inch of its life and there's no telling what you might find? Where it feels like you can do anything?"

"Sometimes. Mostly when I've been on a ship for a while and come back here. Then it just feels weird being able to see blue skies."

"I don't mind seeing the sky - but I want to see more. It's not enough just to go up occasionally. Not anymore. It's like...it's like I'm being smothered here."

"Your home?"

"But it's not my home, is it?" Jin didn't like the whine his voice was developing. "I just live here, that's all. This isn't my place."

Yamapi asked the obvious question. "So where _is_ your place?"

Jin would've shrugged, but he'd only have ended up knocking out his best friend's teeth with his shoulder. "No idea. But I'm never going to find it if I spend the rest of my life here, am I?"

\-----

Tokyo Central Spaceport was a great place to visit if you didn't mind getting hopelessly lost in a maze of department stores, gaudy souvenir shops and restaurants offering every cuisine known to man. Even the staff were prone to taking wrong turns, occasionally returning from a four-hour lunchbreak in a state of heightened panic and with a great many shopping bags.

Jin knew it well, had taken scores of passenger flights off-world during the course of his career. Not many lately, though. He'd also spent his fair share of time on unpaid jaunts.

Well, that wasn't strictly true. He'd paid, but not with money. The trips had been his reward for a job well done - flying lessons from some of Kitagawa's older employees. The pilots and their ships were strictly legal, docked properly at the spaceport, all the papers would hold up under the most stringent of checks. Everything looked above board, and it was...except that Jin had been learning to fly since he was fourteen - four years underage.

With six years of experience under his belt, he figured by now he ought to be able to handle anything from an interplanetary shuttle right up to a six hundred ton Lynx Carrier. (Anything bigger, he felt, might be a bit ambitious for a guy who'd only gotten his pilot's license two years ago, particularly if he was trying to blend in.) He wasn't a _good_ pilot, exactly - Kitagawa's boys had taught him more about coaxing speed from anything with an engine than how to cruise at a safe, legal speed through the Sol System and play nice with the Lunar/InterPlanetary Security forces - but he had a firm grip on the basics.

He wasn't there to fly a ship, though. If he rented a private vehicle he'd leave a paper trail as surely as if he'd taken a passenger flight, and he didn't have any fake IDs that the old man didn't know about. For a kid looking to leave Earth before anyone noticed he'd gone, that left only one option.

Stowing away.

Commercial flights were out. Too many people, and the security checks were tough. He'd never make it through to the docks.

Private crafts, however, didn't require nearly as much effort to reach. They had a separate docking bay over in the East Wing of the spaceport, with individual access to each berth. Of course, their flights were fewer in number, and the details weren't public. No point stowing on board a ship that might not go anywhere for another couple of months.

But even privately-owned ships had to file flight plans. Tokyo Central was the biggest Spaceport in Japan, and the traffic controllers didn't want private and commercial vehicles getting in each other's way. All Jin had to do was get a look at the plans for the day, and he'd know which ships were going where and when.

He finished his coffee, slung his backpack over his shoulder and hoped he was projecting the image of just another bored kid waiting around for his flight. He usually managed it well, but today he was feeling nervous.

And why shouldn't he be? Running out on Kitagawa wasn't something to be taken lightly. The old man accepted that the kids who'd come to him had been runaways, and in return for their services, he'd kept them fed, clothed and privately tutored. (Naturally, not all of those lessons had involved material fit for schools. Most teachers tended to look down on skills such as lock-picking.) They'd even received pocket money, based on their age and relative usefulness.

So the kids were usually content to stay. If they left, no one wasted the time to search for them, and the old man wrote them off as an acceptable loss. None of them ever came back, and Jin hoped they'd moved on to something better. A real life, maybe.

The adults were a different story. Most of them were ingrained into a lifestyle that was quasi-legal at best, and they weren't likely to change their ways. Any one of them left without Kitagawa's approval - which was rarely given - and he'd never work in Japan again. That would be seen to. The Kitagawa Family had international and even intergalactic contacts - the unfortunate soul would probably have to go straight to earn a living, and he'd have a hard time doing that with a criminal record the length of his arm, thoughtfully provided by the old man's pals in the justice system.

That was assuming he survived in the first place, of course, and after what Jin had seen last night, he didn't have much confidence in the prospect.

Yamapi was still in Lunacy, probably having the time of his life with Toma. He'd sent Jin an electronic postcard a couple of hours after landing, and while he'd forgotten to actually fill in the text box, the sentiment had come through. The very next morning, Jin had packed up as much as he could fit in his backpack, acted like he was just going out to meet up with friends, and headed straight to the spaceport.

Unlike Yamapi's usual eclectic choice of postcards, this one depicted the Milky Way. 'Reach for the stars!' it declared, so Jin had decided to do just that. He'd had his reasons.

Last night, Jin had been raiding the pantry when he'd seen one of the men brought back to Kitagawa's place in Shibuya. He hadn't been tied up. There'd been no need; his arms were hanging at awkward angles by his sides and what little expression could be discerned from his swollen face suggested that escape was the farthest thing from his mind.

No talking, not even any threats. Jin only knew the guy had walked out because he'd heard gossip round the building. Tried to defect to a group in Mexico, so the rumour went. He hadn't lasted long on his own.

Jin hadn't felt much like snacking after that. Watching an unarmed man take a blaster shot in every major organ tended to have an adverse effect on the appetite. He'd sneaked out of the pantry afterwards, once the corpse had been moved for disposal, and all but run back up the stairs to bed. Sleep had been hard to come by.

He didn't know if he qualified as an adult now or if the old man would still see him as a kid, but he didn't want to wait around long enough to find out. If he was ever going to leave, it had to be now, while he was still young enough that he might get away with it. He needed to get clear, to take the time to think a little, and that meant he had to get a damned sight further away than Lunacy. Earth's moon was too obvious; he figured he'd have to get to Jupiter, at least, before he could start to breathe easy.

Luckily, Jupiter's Red Spot Terminal, noted for the excellent view it provided of its namesake, was a popular destination. Not only was it the home of Core Tours, a company famed for providing wild, breakneck rides through Jupiter's gaseous interior, but it regularly won awards for the high quality of its drinking establishments.

It also had the advantage of being off the old man's radar. The Kitagawas' influence extended far beyond the Inner Planets of the Sol System, but Jupiter's governor took a tough line on organised crime. It was as good a place as any to disappear, and the heavy traffic levels meant Jin wouldn't have too much trouble finding himself another ride.

He strolled casually through Departures, took a short cut round Seibu's bakery, resisted temptation all along the maze of ramen stalls, but did stop by the men's room to tidy himself up. In a couple of hours, no one was going to care what he looked like, but for now, Jin intended to make the most of his natural charms. (Or not so natural, in the case of the hair dye.)

After all, it was a lot easier for Jin to talk information out of some hapless spaceport staff member than directly from their computer systems.

\-----

Less than an hour later, Jin had brightened the day of three bored young women, all of them foreigners, who clapped and laughed over his attempts to talk to them in their respective native tongues. English, he could manage, having spent six months living in America a couple of years ago on Kitagawa's orders. His French was limited to greetings, some horribly inappropriate chat-up lines, and some drivel about monkeys in trees. As for Russian...that was better glossed over.

Fortunately, it being a Japanese spaceport, all three staff members spoke fluent Japanese. And even if his story about being a university student collecting statistics on the destinations of ships leaving Earth sounded flaky, they were nice enough not to comment on it. Mostly. One did point out that he didn't even have a clipboard, but the other two shushed her and explained that the nice young man was probably using his datband to record this information.

Jin didn't feel like informing them that his datband was actually switched off to avoid trackers, and was now nothing more than a shiny silver bangle. He'd have to find an electronics store and have it re-configged later - not on Jupiter, though, since the procedure was illegal. He planned to contact Yamapi once he could guarantee secure communications, just to let his best friend know that he was okay and would not be back for breakfast.

It didn't take long for his trio of helpers to unearth a suitable ship - when he'd casually asked if there were any going to Jupiter, the first one they'd mentioned had been of interest.

Three hundred and fifty ton Chartreux Courier (an old model, but still spaceworthy), only two registered crew members, leaving for Red Spot Terminal in an hour. What got the girls gossiping and piqued Jin's attention was the revelation that both men were apparently performers, having had some small success round Japan with their rap and beatbox routine and some short comedy numbers. They'd both been around earlier, carrying out a little maintenance while they were docked, and stopping to chat with the ladies.

Well, one of them had. The other was on the shy side when not on stage, it seemed. It sounded perfect to Jin. Entertainers were hardly notorious for beating up stowaways - they might even be willing to offer him a lift, if he asked nicely.

Tanaka Koki and Nakamaru Yuichi. The Russian told him their names. Jin sneaked a peek over her shoulder to check out the details on the screen, learning that the Yunaka was currently in Berth 94 of the 'Visitors' side. He listened for a few minutes more, then thanked them for their time and said he had to go meet his study partner.

(The closest thing Jin had ever had to a study partner was Yamapi, who was, no doubt, eating his way through half the restaurants in Lunacy and writing it all off as expenses.)

November was a busy month for travel - a lot of people liked to fly to Earth to do their Christmas shopping - so the Visitors side was packed. Few heads turned as Jin negotiated the corridor. He located Berth 94, noted the closed saloon-style doors, and ducked behind an enormous billboard advertising Kimura Takuya's latest movie. (The critics all said no one could possibly be a holovid star _and_ a captain in the JE Fleet, but somehow he managed to juggle both careers simultaneously, once even playing himself in a dramatisation of his first mission.)

The shape of the doors allowed him to see into the berth, but prevented him from going either over or under. Inside, two young men were arguing over a can of spraypaint. One, with short blond hair and more jewellery than Jin himself, was trying to put the finishing touches on the hair of a bombshell blonde in a bikini who decorated the side of the ship. The other, more normal-looking man tried to explain that the paint was probably going to be ruined during take-off and that they would be better served by going back to the convenience store near Berth 1 and picking up some snacks.

The frustrated painter eventually gave in, disposing of his now-empty can and following his friend out the door, past the billboard where Jin was hiding.

Jin made a beeline for the door. He knew he didn't have long, not if they were planning to leave in less than an hour, and he needed to conceal himself before they got back. Fortunately, the doors didn't lock except when the berth was sealed for take-off/landing, the assumption being that if someone broke into your ship, it was your own fault for not taking the proper security precautions. At those times only, the room went into lockdown mode, with the ceiling withdrawing into the walls and blocking access from the corridor. The rest of the time, it was only decorum that kept intruders out.

He quickly scanned for witnesses, then darted through the swinging doors and round the side to use the ship's bulk as cover. The Yunaka was an attractive ship, with smooth, sleek lines and a clean white hull - under all the spraypaint, anyway. But as Jin approached the entry hatch, electronic pick in hand, he noticed old, deep scars under the purple painted slogans.

Plasma burns.

Who would fire on a couple of performers? Was their act *that* bad?

No time to go find another ride. Jin held the pick, a flat card, against the lock, and let it select the correct combination of symbols. One minute later, the hatch slid open with a growl.

Inside, the crew had left the lights on, for which Jin was extremely grateful. No sirens started wailing - always a good sign - and no one leapt out to attack him. One of the more useful features of his datband was a pulse that knocked out alarm systems, very handy for anyone in Kitagawa's employ, but that would involve reactivating it and Jin wasn't prepared to do that.

Thirty seconds skimming the cockpit told him three things. First, that he could probably fly the ship if he had to but he stood as much chance of switching off the life support as activating the hyperdrive. Second, the two crew members owned enough clothes for six, with jackets, hats, and random feather boas scattered all over the place, even though the ship had two cabins and presumably more than enough space for garments.

And third...his unwitting chauffeurs weren't as harmless as they appeared to be.

Jin stared at the storage locker in alarm. The last person to close it had been sloppy; the door hung open, revealing a mess of handguns, rifles, spare power packs and one odd-looking weapon that Jin would have classed as a toy if not for its deadly companions. He plucked a blaster and power pack from the clutter, certain that no one was likely to notice their absence.

He'd been carrying a knife since he was sixteen, the consequence of an ambush in Lunacy, but guns he hadn't had much practice with. Naturally, the kids weren't allowed them. But children grew up.

Jin checked the safety, slotted the powerpack into place, and went to find a suitable spot to conceal himself for the voyage.

\-----

Jin had to admit, whichever one of the guys was in the pilot's seat, he was _good_. Smooth take-off, no veering into the walls, very little shaking. Jin appreciated that, seeing as how he was the only person on the ship who wasn't strapped in - a situation he might have reconsidered if he'd realised just how old a model the Yunaka actually was. The artificial gravity was prone to flickering on and off, and he had to keep a tight hold of the box next to him to keep his seat on the floor.

The boxes were strapped down to the floor, fortunately, or they'd have been floating at odd intervals as well - not to mention, falling. There were at least two dozen of them, all sealed shut, and bearing the somewhat unexpected label of 'party supplies'.

What kind of party, Jin wasn't sure, but it was a fair bet none of the guests would be from the law-abiding community. Prying open the lid of the nearest box revealed a collection of assorted leather bags, and inside the bags...

Diamond rings. Emerald earrings. Pearl necklaces. And that was just in one box.

Either Tanaka Koki and Nakamaru Yuichi were phenomenally successful - and yet relatively anonymous - entertainers who could afford to carry around billions of yen in jewellery, or they were crooks. Based on the plasma burns and the weapons he'd found, Jin was going with the second option.

He licked his lips nervously. As long as they were still headed in the right direction, things might work out. But why would a pair of criminals file their real flight plan?

It was too soon to tell. Jin hadn't felt the unmistakable shudder that came with the change from sub-light to faster-than-light engines; the ship's hyperdrive had not yet been activated. They were merely sitting, probably not that far out of Earth's atmosphere, maybe waiting for the lanes to clear so they could move further away. There was bound to be a lot of traffic, and it was bad manners - not to mention fatal - to screw up someone else's jump.

Yeah, that was it. Traffic. That's why they weren't moving. Nothing more sinister than that.

Jin had just about convinced himself that all was well when footsteps outside the door persuaded him that this might not be the case. He peeked round the corner of the box to see the more normal of the two crew members enter the cargo hold, seemingly searching for something, and talking into the datband on his wrist as he moved.

"I don't think it's here, Koki." The man, who must by default have been Nakamaru Yuichi, peered round boxes, under tarp, and inside a hidden compartment in the floor. "Sorry, but I think I must've left it on Earth. Are we cleared to go yet?"

Koki's response was audible even to Jin, though the sound verged on tinny. "Another twenty minutes, at least. The LIPS are running some kind of operation."

Jin stifled a groan. The Lunar/InterPlanetary Security force policed the Sol System on matters that didn't fall under jurisdiction of the United Solar Navy, like pilots making jumps in forbidden zones, felons violating their parole by crossing interplanetary borders, and smugglers running illegally-modified weapons to Earth's moon.

He figured they probably weren't too fond of ships carrying billions in stolen jewellery, either.

"They're not doing a stop and search, are they?" Nakamaru sounded worried. This couldn't be good for Jin.

"Nah. I think it's just one of their standard checks for hot ships - they run our registration, find everything's in order, we get out of here." There was a pause, then, "It _is_ in order, right? You renewed the tax chit?"

"Everything's fine, other than me being unable to remember where I left your black nail polish."

There was a laugh from the other end of the datband connection. "You're buying me another one when we land - that stuff's expensive!"

Nakamaru grinned. "Once we sell all this, I don't think that's going to be a problem. I'll come back up in a minute." He signed off, cutting the connection, and continued checking the cargo hold while Jin held his breath and concentrated on staying absolutely still.

Unfortunately for Jin, staying still had never been one of his strong points.

His left leg was falling asleep, and he couldn't help moving it a little to wake it up. Despite his caution, the buckle on his boot scraped against the wall, the sound of metal on metal frighteningly loud.

Loud enough to catch Nakamaru's attention. He drew a stunner from his belt and approached Jin's hiding place, just in time to feel the tip of a blaster barrel against the back of his head.

"Drop your weapon," Jin ordered. It was the first time he'd ever deliberately held anyone at gunpoint; he figured he should sound authoritative but his voice betrayed him, emerging higher-pitched than usual and desperate into the bargain. The semi-dozing left leg didn't help matters; his balance was off and one solid hit would topple him.

Nakamaru froze. "It's just a stunner," he said carefully. "Not dangerous."

Jin begged to differ. That time he and Yamapi had gotten caught up in a shootout on Neptune, both of them unarmed and dependent on the protection of their hosts, he'd caught a stunner blast to the head. After he'd regained consciousness, the resulting hangover had left him feeling wretched for ages afterwards, and Pi had made fun of him for walking into things.

He tried not to squeak when he spoke again. "Drop it anyway. Hands away from your datband."

Nakamaru set the stunner on the ground and kicked it away; Jin prodded him down to his knees. He had no idea what to do next. Stun his hostage? Restrain him somehow? Ask him for his favourite colour?

The one thing he definitely couldn't do was shoot him. Not with the blaster. Not like this. Shooting a man in self-defense was one thing, but opening fire on an unarmed stranger for having the bad luck to discover Jin hiding on his ship was out of the question.

He blurted out the first question that sprang to mind. "Are you really going to Jupiter?"

"Eh?" Nakamaru started to twist his head round, then thought better of it. "Yeah, we're going to Jupiter. But you know, this isn't a passenger ship-"

"I know."

Nakamaru gulped. "Good. Just so we're clear on that. Now we understand each other, do you feel like taking the gun away?"

"Not really." Not that Jin would be adverse to holstering his weapon - if he'd been wearing a holster, anyway - but no matter how harmless his prisoner sounded, there was no reason to believe he wouldn't kill Jin the moment he got the chance.

"Okay." Nakamaru took a deep breath. "How about you tell me what you want and we'll see if we can work something out?"

The other man was shaking, belying his apparent calmness, although Jin's hands were none too steady either. Both of them jumped when Nakamaru's datband crackled into life, with Koki wondering if his partner in crime had decided to take a nap. The cockpit wasn't *that* far away.

Jin made up his mind. "I want you to get up - slowly - and go back to the cockpit. I'll be right behind you, so don't try anything."

The two of them crept along the corridor, Jin's sights set firmly on the back of Nakamaru's black jacket. Just to be on the safe side, Jin retrieved the stunner from the floor before they left; the less formidable weapon expanded his options.

Tanaka Koki was happy to see the return of his friend, right up until he spotted Jin following behind. He was even less enthused when the gun wavered in his direction. The torrent of invective gave it away.

Jin didn't have quite enough street cred to understand some of the insults, but he got the picture. "Shut up and listen for a sec, will you? Just don't move - don't do anything suspicious - and nobody's going to get hurt."

"Especially not us, since you've still got the safety on," Koki pointed out.

It was an obvious trick, and Jin fell for it. As he cast a discreet glance down at the blaster Nakamaru turned and kicked him; by sheer coincidence the kick connected with Jin's weakened left leg, which still hadn't come back to life properly.

On the positive side, this dulled the pain somewhat. On the negative, it didn't help one damned bit when he crashed into a console, dropping the weapon as a heavy panel fell off the side and slammed into his hip. Jin howled in sudden agony and clutched the console to try to pull himself up.

"Not that one!" Nakamaru yelled, but it was too late.

All three of them stared in horror at the main viewscreen, where a pair of luminous green bolts skimmed the nose of a large freighter waiting its turn to leave Earth's local space.

"The pulse laser." Koki sounded disgusted. "You fired the pulse laser. Of all the..."

"It was an accident!" Jin protested, still sprawled in an undignified heap on the floor. He extended an arm and just managed to retrieve his fallen weapon. "And you lied! I knew I hadn't left the safety on!"

As he waved the blaster triumphantly in the air, the other two ducked for cover. There was no telling what their lunatic intruder might do next.

"Don't fire it in here!" Nakamaru scrabbled around for his stunner, but it was buried somewhere under Jin. (Luckily, stunners were a) extremely durable and b) almost impossible to switch on by accident.)

Jin was about to insist that of course he wasn't stupid enough to actually fire it in the cockpit - there were enough mirrored surfaces inside that a stray shot could quite easily do the rounds - but his attention was drawn back to the screen.

Dozens of commercial and private vessels alike were waiting patiently for their registrations to be checked by the Lunar/InterPlanetary Security, whose ships were forming a loose blockade around them. All the talking between these two groups was done from a distance - evidently, no one had yet merited a stop-and-search.

Not until now. One of the purple and white LIPS cruisers broke away from the rest, rounding on the Yunaka and coming to rest worryingly close. The comm station lit up and Koki, after shooting a wary glance at Jin, emerged from behind his chair to jab a sequence of buttons. A small corner of the main viewscreen sectioned itself off and turned completely black.

Koki snorted and thumped another button, but nothing happened. "They must be on audio-only," he muttered.

There was a crackle, and then a stern, slightly raspy voice emitted from the speaker.

"This is Officer Kamenashi Kazuya of the Lunar/InterPlanetary Security vessel Murasaki," the voice said. "Chartreux Courier-class Yunaka, you have fired illegally upon a civilian vessel in a secure zone. Disarm all weapons and stand by to be boarded."


	2. Chapter 2

Kamenashi Kazuya, known as 'Kame' to his few friends, 'kid' to his bosses and 'hey, rookie!' to his colleagues, hadn't planned to join LIPS at all. He'd decided as a small child that when he grew up, he was going to be a baseball player and that one day, he'd lead his team to victory in the Inner Planet Series. Not a bad career choice for a five-year old.

Sadly, Kame had been too young to appreciate the nature of his family's financial situation. The second youngest of four brothers, he grew up in hand-me-downs, with much well-intentioned love but not a great deal of pocket money. Baseball equipment was expensive. Kame played as hard as he could while he was still at school, because he realised, as he aged, that working full-time wasn't going to allow him the opportunity to follow his dreams.

And work was a necessity. Kame worked part time in high school, didn't even consider going on to university. Most of the money went to his family. He didn't begrudge it, not even when it meant denying himself the things he wanted most.

Like travel, for instance. The Kamenashi family had been off-world a grand total of twice in young Kazuya's lifetime, and once had been to Titan Colony so it didn't really count. They'd barely left Japan, never mind leaving the Sol System.

Kame wanted to visit Paris in the spring, to shop in London, to walk across Neptune's famous Floating Bridge. The universe was a big place, and the small boy with the giant imagination had his heart set on seeing it.

But that cost money. There were dozens of career paths that would've gotten him off-world - pro athlete being one of them - but for an eighteen year-old boy with limited education and little chance of being able to afford more, the choices were few. So Kame weighed up his options, packed his bags, and joined the Japanese branch of Lunar/InterPlanetary Security.

The training academy was in Osaka, which afforded him the opportunity to do a fair amount of sightseeing and eating in his free time. Not that he had much; Kame threw himself into his training with every ounce of energy he possessed, driven by the desire to explore.

Unfortunately, exploration was off the cards for the forseeable future. Kame was assigned to the LIPS branch in Lunar City Major, which, in theory, was a desirable location to work. Close enough to Earth that family visits were a quick shuttle trip away, yet far enough to seem exotic to one who'd never lived anywhere but his home planet. The hours were regular, the equipment was in good repair, and the desserts in the station canteen were to die for.

None of this meant much to Kame, especially since he was rarely around at mealtimes and even when he was, he tended to get shunted out of line by his taller and heavier colleagues. It wasn't easy being the shortest person in his unit.

Strictly speaking, Kame shouldn't have been there at all. The rest of his class at the academy had been sent off to considerably more exotic locations, such as Mercury, where heavy-duty sunblock was just as vital as oxygen; or Pluto, where felons lounged in orbital stations on their way out of the Sol System, and out of LIPS's jurisdiction.

It was the force's way of toughening up its rookies - send them out to inhospitable locations, make it difficult for them to come running home with their problems, and leave them to enforce the law any way they could. Kame knew the drill, had been expecting a post at the far end of the Sol System.

But fate, in the form of JE Fleet Admiral Domoto Koichi (no relation to Admiral Domoto Tsuyoshi), had intervened.

The JE Fleet was Earth's contribution to the United Solar Navy, which didn't normally concern itself with such petty matters as pilots making illegal jumps in the forbidden zones around planets, or escaped thieves making a break for Pluto. Not unless they happened to be acts of war; they usually weren't, so the USN and LIPS stuck to their own affairs and didn't interfere with each other.

That didn't mean they didn't cross paths occasionally, though. Admiral Domoto Koichi had been visiting the academy on the pretext of a guest lecture, though everyone knew he was actually there to lure away new recruits if he could. (Many a young trainee had fallen under his spell before, but they all forgave him for the theft because he was extremely pretty.)

Kame had seen him sit in on several classes but hadn't paid much attention, not having an interest in joining the military. (LIPS had a better amateur baseball league.) The admiral, however, had been paying very close attention, though he'd never told Kame exactly what had prompted him to suggest to the trainers that the boy might be ideally suited to a Moon-based posting. Kame suspected alcohol might have been involved somewhere.

It certainly wasn't anything resembling logic. While Kame hadn't gone out of his way to advertise the fact, he hadn't troubled to conceal his desire to travel, and had even mentioned to Admiral Koichi (not to be confused with Admiral Tsuyoshi) over lunch that he was looking forward to being assigned to a unit far from home.

After graduating first in his class from the academy - Kame was a perfectionist, after all - he was dismayed to discover that he would be going no further than Earth's moon. Rather than being sent to the galactic equivalent of the outback to enforce the law, he was to join the Lunar City Major branch and live the easy life. His jurisdiction was limited, covering the Moon and specific zones between it and the Earth. Anything beyond that, he was told, wasn't his problem.

Problems, in general, were not encouraged. But when Kame found himself thrown in with a mixed band of men and women from all over the Sol System, and every single one of them taller than him, he had nothing but.

"Hey, rookie!"

Kame looked round to see who was hailing him this time. The culprit was one of the few Japanese based at Lunacy, a guy named Ishida Makoto, whose claim to fame was that in the three years since he'd started there, the branch's arrest percentages had gone through the roof. Privately, Kame thought this was nothing more than a coincidence, but it wasn't an opinion his Ishida-worshipping colleagues shared.

"We missed you at lunch," Ishida continued, smirking. "What's the matter, too good to eat with the rest of us now just 'cause you got lucky last night?"

"Luck had nothing to do with it," Kame retorted. "If the rest of you hadn't been too lazy to run down that freighter's registration, you'd have known he was smuggling Trans-Saturnian rum and you could've been in on the arrest." Heavily implied in his tone was: _I did the work, so I got the credit._

Ishida's smirk never wavered. "I might've run down the registration if there'd been anything suspicious about the ship, but there wasn't. Just the pilot. But you're the only one who met him - in a bar, wasn't it? Carl told me you guys left together. What, he was bad in bed so you decided he must be a crook and checked his credentials?"

"Plying a suspect with alcohol is a perfectly legitimate tactic for extracting information," Kame said icily. He was used to Ishida's taunts, but still, every time, he felt the need to defend himself. If he didn't, the situation would only worsen. "I was in the bar - off-duty, I might add - and noticed the pilot drinking nothing but milk by the gallon. Wouldn't that have made you suspicious?"

"That the guy might like milk? Well, yeah, I'd suspect that he had a strong preference for dairy..."

Kame silently counted to ten, imagining with each number that he was smacking a baseball bat into the back of Ishida's head. "Trans-Saturnian rum addicts crave three things: more rum, money to buy more rum, and milk. The rum's illegal in the Inner Planets, in case you hadn't noticed. I got him talking, slipped him some vodka, sent his registration back to the station where all of you flatly refused to even look at it. What was I supposed to do, give up and go home?"

"Any time you feel like doing that is fine by me, Kamenashi." Ishida's smirk had mutated, somewhere along the way, into a look of cold, hard hatred. "We were doing all right long before you got here and started cozying up to the captain, and we'll do even better when you finally admit you don't belong and go running back to your family."

Before Kame could even begin to formulate a retort, the other man gave a disgusted snort and went to join his swarm of groupies over at the replicator. It was just Kame's bad luck that he'd chosen to take his teabreak at the same time as the 'Ishida is my god' crowd. He probably wouldn't even get near the dratted machine until his break was almost over; business as usual.

His datband bleeped an alert at him. It was Captain Maynard, calling from the station down in Lunacy.

"Heard you did good last night, kid," the captain said. "Bennett gave me the whole story over the comm this morning - said it couldn't wait till I got to work. Wasn't expecting you to be out on patrol today, though. Weren't you up till four filling in the paperwork?"

Kame crept out of the room to find a quiet corner before answering, knowing full well that if his colleagues overheard him, they'd have their fill of entertainment. "I'm just doing my duty, sir."

The captain chuckled. "That's what I like to hear. Dedication to duty, not like these louts they keep sending me. Well, don't overdo it, Kamenashi. No overtime today, you hear me? The force can't afford all the extra hours you keep putting in!"

It wasn't funny, but Kame laughed politely because it was expected of him. It was, after all, always a good idea to laugh at the jokes of one's boss. At least Captain Maynard's sense of humour, if somewhat lacking, was rarely mean and never directed at Kame, which made him a damn sight better to talk to than any of Kame's peers. Lieutenant Bennett wasn't bad, either, even if his taste in fashion was akin to that of a blind giraffe.

"Don't worry, sir - my shift ends at six and I have every intention of going straight home."

Like the intention he'd had last night, before the need to go park himself on a barstool had taken over. Ishida had been right, in a way - it *had* been luck that had put him in the right place at the right time to catch a smuggler. No bars tonight, though. Kame wanted coffee and sleep, and he wasn't particular about which one came first.

Judging by the crowd at the replicator, he thought sleep would be easier to obtain.

"You do that." There was a sound of papers being shuffled. "By the way, I've got a proposition for you. No, not one of _those_ propositions - I guess a good-looking kid like you gets those by the dozen. Sergeant's exam. You interested?"

"What?" Kame spluttered. "Already?"

"Been talking it over with Bennett and we both think you'd ace it, no problem. You're a hard worker; you're sensible, practical and don't take too many foolhardy risks. Could do with a few more like you in the branch."

Kame couldn't deny that he was a hard worker - he was always the first to volunteer for overtime (money was a great lure) and never took time off sick. If he passed the exam, he'd be on a higher pay grade, have more responsibility...and possibly get the chance to travel further afield.

Not that moving up a rank had done anything for Ishida, who was already a sergeant and the senior man on board the LIPS cruiser Kame was currently assigned to. And if Kame passed the exam and remained with the same unit...

"I'll think about it, sir," he said reluctantly. "I really need to get back to work now."

The captain sighed. "Suppose I should give you a few moments to think it over. Try let me know by the end of the week, will you? I know you're the independent sort, don't like relying on other people, but I am actually trying to help your career. I think you've got a lot of potential, kid."

"And I appreciate that, sir."

"Not at all sure you do, but enough of that. You've got work to do, and I need to get going. Some idiot out-of-towner started a brawl in a restaurant and I've got the mayor breathing down my neck to make it all disappear. Let me know when you've made up your mind about the exam."

With that, the captain cut the connection, leaving Kame leaning wearily against the wall with his intensified caffeine cravings. Talking to Captain Maynard was a tiring business, especially for someone working on only three hours of sleep.

\-----

Two minutes before he was due back on duty, Kame managed to grab a coffee. He'd had to wait until everyone else had filtered out of the break room lest one of them grab it away from him, but he'd succeeded.

Too bad he'd been so distracted thinking about the sergeant's exam that he'd hit the button for 'decaf' by mistake.

Fortunately, it wasn't as if his daily routine required actual brainpower. If it did, his colleagues would've been fired years ago. All they were doing today was taking part in a joint operation with several of the Earth-based branches of LIPS - forming a blockade in the secure, no-jump zone around the Earth, and checking the registration of every ship leaving the planet to ensure that none of them were stolen or on a wanted list. Mostly it was done from a distance - each ship had to transmit its details then wait to be cleared by LIPS before moving into an open lane to continue its voyage. Only if something suspicious came up did they move in for a stop-and-search.

A lot of hanging around and talking, in other words, and since Kame's colleagues were more inclined to huddle in groups and chat amongst themselves, not even that much talking. A couple of the women approached him at one point to ask if it was true that he'd had to seduce the information out of the pilot last night, but other than that, his conversation was limited to things like "Can you hit that button over there?".

They were all taking it in turns to sit at the comm station - based on Ishida's rota, which meant he had to spend the least amount of time on the uncomfortable chair, talking to pilots over the open channel, and Kame spent the longest. Nevertheless, his turn sped by, and Aya, sitting next to him, was quick and efficient with the registration checks.

It was boring, and it was dull, but it was _safe_. Kame was five minutes away from passing the seat along when things livened up. A courier, completely out of the blue, fired a pair of luminous green bolts at a freighter opposite.

Ishida let out a whoop from the back, pointing at the main viewscreen. "Ten to one it's accidental discharge, but let's find out anyway. Some idiot just fired a pulse laser right by Earth - let's go lay down the law, guys!"

A roar of enthusiasm thundered around the small bridge, bypassing the quieter members of the unit altogether and ending with Ishida himself. When they got all fired up to make the most of someone else's misfortune, there was just no stopping them. Not for the first time, Kame wondered if he should've listened to his mother and become a fashion designer instead. Of course, there was the small matter of his utter lack of artistic talent to overcome...

Carl, over in the pilot's seat, broke them out of formation and pulled up next to the offending ship. Aya put the details on the screen. It was a Chartreux Courier-class, the _Yunaka_. with a faded purple 'JOKER' painted on one side, and a bikini-clad, well-endowed, bleached-blonde beach babe on the other. Probably not owned by the priesthood, then.

"Go on, rookie," Ishida drawled, making Kame jump. "You're on communications - say something. Maybe you'll catch yourself another smuggler and get promoted somewhere a billion light-years away."

There was always hope. Kame swallowed, suddenly feeling like he hadn't had anything to drink for days. All eyes were on him, waiting for him to speak. He opened an audio-only channel, looked resolutely straight ahead at the ship, and delivered his warning.

"This is Officer Kamenashi Kazuya of theLunar/InterPlanetary Security vessel Murasaki. Chartreux Courier-class Yunaka, you have fired illegally upon a civilian vessel in a secure zone. Disarm all weapons and stand by to be boarded."

Another whoop from the back, and the sound of a stampede for the lockers as everyone went for their space armour. All LIPS officers were issued with an individual set upon assignment to a unit - Kame was amazed that no one had sabotaged his yet. A few quick snips in the oxygen supply and auto-repair systems, and he'd be a goner if he ever closed the suit seals.

The stampede was so loud, in fact, that Kame almost didn't hear when he got a reply.

"Uh...it was an accident," a nervous voice from the Yunaka said. "We were performing maintenance in the cockpit and the trigger was pressed by mistake."

Kame had trouble believing his ears. "You were performing a dance in the cockpit?"

Aya, who was sitting near enough to hear, looked askance at this. "A dance? Oi, Kamenashi, have you been drinking? Just how much did you have last night?"

"Not a dance," a different voice from the Yunaka answered. "Maintenance. You know, fixing stuff?"

There was a crash in the background, and a muffled voice muttered, "Don't antagonise him."

"Me? I'm not the one who fell on the weapons console!"

"I said I was sorry!"

Ishida got impatient. "What's the hold-up, rookie? Tell 'em to hold position and we'll send a tunnel across."

Kame held up a hand to shush him and turned to murmur to Aya. "How many different voices did you hear?"

She chewed on her lip a moment, then said, "Three."

The crew roster, displayed on Kame's small screen, listed only two members - joint-owners Tanaka Koki and Nakamaru Yuichi. The passenger roster was blank. The slave trade had been outlawed centuries ago, so the third voice couldn't belong to cargo, and none of them had sounded computer-generated.

There was an unregistered person on board the Yunaka.


	3. Chapter 3

"Nice going," Koki snarled, ensuring the channel was closed. "Now they'll think we're complete idiots!"

"At least if they think we're idiots they'll assume we're harmless," Jin said. He was still holding the blaster - safety off - but it didn't help him feel any more in control of the situation. "Then maybe they won't look very hard. At least, all that jewellery in the hold says you'd better hope they don't."

"How do you know about that?"

"He jumped me in the hold," Nakamaru admitted.

Koki switched from angry to mystified in a heartbeat. "All that time I thought you were looking for my nail polish and you were back there with this guy? We don't have time for things like that!"

"No, no." Nakamaru waved his hands frantically. "I didn't mean it that way."

"I didn't touch him," Jin protested. "And I'm not 'this guy'. I'm-"

"Stop right there." Koki's glance flicked nervously between Jin and the LIPS cruiser on the screen. "I don't want to know. When they board, we explain that you're a hijacker and you forced us to carry you and all your stolen jewellery to your secret base!"

Nakamaru looked dubious. "I don't think they're going to buy that one, even if he is a hijacker."

"I'm not a hijacker, I'm a stowaway! I just want to go to Jupiter!"

"Nobody's going anywhere unless we do something about those guys. This ship's not hot, but the cargo is. Put that gun down!"

Reluctantly, Jin acceded to Koki's demand. Hand weapons were clearly not going to be of much use in this situation. He flipped the safety on and took a seat by the weapons console, setting the blaster carefully on the side.

Koki stared at him. "Make yourself at home, Mr. Hijacker."

"It's Akanishi Jin. And I said I'm not a hijacker!"

"Mr. Stowaway, then."

Jin scowled and turned to Nakamaru, deciding that he was the more reasonable of the two. "Can we get out of here before they extend that tunnel?"

"That would make us fugitives," Nakamaru pointed out. "I don't know what you're wanted for, but we try to keep up appearances."

"I'm not actually *wanted* as such...but I'd really rather not go back to Earth right now." Because if he did, no matter where he went, word was bound to get back to the old man and when that happened, Jin wanted to be in a galaxy far, far away.

"Believe me, if I could send you back to Earth, I would!" Koki began to pace the length of the cockpit, footsteps deliberately thunderous. "If those LIPS guys get in here, they can trace our cargo back to a hundred different jewellers and we'll all be on our way down to Lunacy for questioning. Maybe we can offer to pay a fine for accidental discharge or something."

Nakamaru shrugged. "Worth a try. And it's the truth, after all." He took Koki's vacated seat and opened the comm channel again. "We're sorry about the discharge, and happy to pay the fine - plus any repairs needed to the freighter, of course."

"Never mind the fine," came a grim voice from the other end. "You're carrying an unregistered person aboard. All crew and passengers must be declared to the proper authorities at the point of departure."

If looks could kill, Jin would've been dead twice over and had his ashes scattered for good measure; the other two were regarding him with the sort of ferocity one would normally reserve for the person who'd lost them the winning Intergalactic Lottery ticket. The LIPS officer sounded equally serious - and perhaps a little...tired?

Jin dived for the comm station, elbowing Nakamaru out the way, and laughed as casually as he could without sounding too scared. "I can't believe you two forgot to fill in the forms! Don't hire a guy to join the team and then forget to register him - Earth authorities will think I'm pulling a disappearing act, and I'm a musician, not a magician!"

Koki spent the next thirty seconds impersonating a goldfish, flapping his mouth in bewildered silence, but Nakamaru caught on. "Koki, you said you were going to handle it yesterday! How's Akanishi supposed to play Red Spot Terminal with us if he's not legal to be there?" Then, a _sotto voce_ aside to Jin, "Are you really a musician?"

"Um...I can sing? And I play guitar, sometimes," Jin whispered back. "Are *you* really musicians?"

"It's not just our cover story, you know!" Koki traded in the goldfish expression for one of muted indignation.

"Musicians, huh?" Another man's voice from the LIPS cruiser, this one careless and lazy. "If we come pay you a visit, you gonna give us a show?"

There was a burst of static on the line, and the first officer, Kamenashi, muttered, "Just because you're bored, Ishida, doesn't mean you can go find yourself free entertainment while we're on duty."

Jin perked up and covered the mic with his hand. "I don't think he meant for us to hear that."

"No kidding," Koki said sourly. "Brain like yours, no wonder you're such a successful stowaway."

"People don't love me for my brain." As much as it pained Jin to admit to the fact, it was true. But you didn't have to be a genius to be smart; Jin liked to think he had smarts where it counted and he'd spotted a couple of familiar ships amidst the swarm waiting to be cleared. "It looks like we're going to get boarded no matter what, which means we're all in trouble. Can we get out of this system in a hurry if we have to?"

Nakamaru checked the readings on a panel to his left and shook his head. "This is an old model - the hyperdrive takes forever to warm up. We've been hanging around Earth so long we're stuck on sub-light engines for now. And even if we weren't, we'll be in even more trouble if we jump in a secure zone."

"Not if everyone's doing it."

"Akanishi, this isn't really the time for a discussion on peer pressure." Nakamaru crossed his arms over his chest. "I can fly the Yunaka through anything, in any condition, but I'm not going to risk a jump so close to all these other ships."

"Let's say I can clear them out the way for you." Jin flashed him a dazzling grin, feeling, for the first time in a long while, that he was in his element. There was just something about being out amongst the stars, a desire unfolding in slow, cautious steps that made him long to see what he could do. "Get the hyperdrive warmed up."

Nakamaru and Koki exchanged a 'are we really going to listen to this lunatic?' glance, and Koki shrugged. "We can't afford to get boarded. Might as well have the option of a quick getaway if we can."

A flip of a switch and a low rumble signalled that the hyperdrive was beginning to flicker into life - with the bare minimum of enthusiasm. "It'll be about ten minutes," Nakamaru said. "They'll be here long before that, the radio silence alone is suspicious."

"Then we have to distract them. If that Ishida guy wants a performance, let's give him one and see if we can't make him forget about gatecrashing for a while." Jin thought hard for a moment, then gave up trying to predict which song was most likely to appeal. He wasn't sure he had anything in his repertoire keyed to hard-edged, small-minded law-enforcement types. "I need to use the comm system to boost a datband signal; you guys start the show without me."

Jin crossed his fingers for luck and switched on his datband, quickly patching the signal through to the Yunaka's comm system to increase the range. He was taking a risk in activating it, but hopefully by the time anyone contemplated tracking him, he'd be long gone - out of sight, if not out of mind.

At least his transmission would be scrambled. And with any luck, he'd only need to make one.

"Minami, that you out there?" he murmured into the datband's small mic, on a frequency mostly used by Sierra ships. There was a familiar-looking silver-striped craft towards the back of the crowd, cuddling up as close to an enormous freighter as she could without looking like she was trying to hide - which of course she was. One didn't get to be the Milky Way's most successful female smuggler by being obvious.

Static crackled down the channel; Jin looked worriedly at his datband in case it was about to explode. He was relieved when the quiet, composed voice of a young girl replied, "Akanishi?"

"Yeah." Jin licked his lips nervously and hoped Minami had forgotten he still owed her thirty bucks from their last card game. "You out here on business?"

A gentle laugh. "You know I can't tell you that. And you?"

No doubt about it, Jin decided - Minami was carrying something she shouldn't be. "Same. Wish I wasn't, though. These LIPS guys are bad news. See that cruiser out by itself - the one radiating extra hostility?"

"Yes...?" Cautious.

"I've heard about that crew. They've been raiding ships leaving Earth and confiscating their cargo on false charges. Word is that if you try to claim it back, they make sure you don't last long enough to file the paperwork. If you're carrying something you'd rather not lose, you might want to be somewhere else - I'm just saying."

Meanwhile, over at the comm, Nakamaru was beatboxing nervously, watching the LIPS cruiser draw nearer and nearer. Koki's rap, overlaying it, was peppered with even more nonsensical English than usual. Luckily for him, the English-speaking portion of the LIPS personnel thought it was amusing - though to judge by the muttered commentary making its way across the channel, amusement and bafflement were being felt in equal measure.

"Nice of you to share the warning, Akanishi, but they've got my reg. on file and if I disappear without being given clearance, they'll track me down and slap me with a fine."

Jin groaned. That wasn't what he wanted to hear.

"But," Minami continued, "I know a few people out here, and I dare say those people will know a few more. If everyone had reason to evacuate, they could hardly blame us for leaving, could they?"

*That* was more like it. "What did you have in mind?"

"Give me ten minutes. I need to talk to Emi."

With that, Minami cut the connection. Jin just hoped that whatever she was planning coincided with the reawakening of the Yunaka's hyperdrive, or everyone else in the area would clear out and they'd be left by themselves.

He joined the other two at the comm as their first number drew to a close, and listened to the decidedly mixed responses from the LIPS personnel. ("Was that supposed to be English?"/"That guy who's really talented with his mouth - is he single?"/"Who drank my coffee?")

"Now, boys, I'm sure you can do better than that," Ishida drawled. "Guess we should come over and offer you some inspiration."

Nakamaru looked worried. "I was so nervous," he confided to Jin, "that it was like trying to beatbox on a jet coaster or something. We're normally a lot better than this."

"I thought it sounded great," came a small voice from the speaker. Kamenashi, Jin thought, but he was speaking so quietly it was difficult to tell.

"You got a degree in music, rookie?" Ishida said derisively. "Tell you what, you stay here and write a nice report about it for the captain while we get suited up and arrest these clowns for firing in a secure zone."

A slow but steady hiss emerged from the speaker panel, prompting Koki to check for a hull breach, but it turned out just to be Kamenashi hissing through his teeth. Things didn't sound positive over on the LIPS cruiser, which began to reposition itself opposite the Yunaka's door.

So Jin did the only thing he could do under the circumstances. He sang the first thing that came to mind - an old Crystal Kay song - and left the other two to join in as and when they were able. Fortunately, this proved to be fairly soon.

 _"GUM wo kami yubi de KEY o narasu..."_

Maybe he didn't have much of an audience, but that didn't mean Jin couldn't give it his all. He'd always enjoyed singing, frequently going out to karaoke with Pi and his other friends and using the holo-options to pretend he was performing on a stage before a vast crowd. He moved his hips with the music, snapping his fingers to the beat and ignoring the speculative look he was receiving from Koki. The three of them sounded pretty good together, he thought. Maybe he really could join the act.

The Murasaki's crew seemed to be in favour of this too. An incredulous female voice said, "Are you _dancing_ , Kamenashi?" and Jin had to repress a giggle or mess up the lyrics.

 _"...zutto watashi no daiji na BOYFRIEND."_

As Jin sang the final line, his voice was joined by another - a sweet, slightly nasal rasp. Officer Kamenashi Kazuya. He grinned and held out his hands to Koki and Nakamaru for a high-five, but before their palms could meet, an explosion rocked the prow. All three were sent flying.

"Hope they thought we sounded as good as I thought we did," Koki grumbled, checking the Yunaka's diagnostics, "because they're not getting an encore. I don't know who shot us but that was the communications array that's just been melted."

Nakamaru struggled to his feet, having completely flattened Jin, and twiddled with settings at the comm station. It didn't take him long to give up. "Completely dead. We can't even try to talk them out of boarding us now."

Jin fought for breath - Nakamaru had quite knocked the wind out of him - and cast a glance at the main viewscreen. "They have," he panted, "bigger things to worry about than us now."

"Bigger things", in this case, proved to be a giant Lion trader, which had moved to the centre of the blockade and was firing wildly in ten different directions at once. Bright green pulses flashed across the gap from ship to ship; torpedoes chased smaller vessels and tore through hulls.

Koki slammed on the shields. "This was your plan? Get us blown to bits before they can board us? I am *really* starting to regret hiring you!"

"You didn't hire him," Nakamaru pointed out. "But if we make it out of here in one piece, you probably should. We sounded pretty great together."

"We're not going to get blown up," Jin said, secretly pleased by the approval but trying not to sound it. "That stray shot was an accident. Watch carefully."

The screen had become a mass of firepower, weapons raging at random. If one were to take a closer look, however, one might notice that the number of crafts being held up by the blockade was gradually decreasing, with ships slipping away down side lanes and putting enough distance between themselves and the nearest obstacle to make the jump to light-speed. Naturally, none of them belonged to LIPS.

This was by no means the only interesting phenomenon taking place.

"That ship...doesn't exist, does it?" Koki asked. "The shots are passing through it."

"Right." Jin jabbed a finger at the screen, causing Nakamaru and Koki to tense in case he accidentally broke it. "It's holographic. It's being generated by that little Sierra in the back."

"And the shots?" Nakamaru asked as another one glanced off the starboard shields.

Jin shrugged. "I don't know how many ships my friend Minami managed to convince to join in, but there have to be at least a dozen firing. There are so many ships out here right now that the absence of the fake one on radar will never be noticed - not until the crowd thins enough, and by that time, we'll be gone, along with everyone else who's got something to hide."

Or almost everyone. He figured Minami would probably back out gradually until she was at the limit of her projection range, then disappear while there was still enough confusion to cover her. Anyone left could fend for themselves. With all the crossfire in a relatively small area, it would take the LIPS that long to get close enough to discover they'd been tricked.

So Jin hoped, anyway.

The hyperdrive's rumble eased into a high-pitched whine - equally irritating but far more welcome. "We're good to go," Nakamaru announced, sliding into the pilot's chair. "Take a seat and strap yourselves in."

Koki abandoned the now-useless comm station for the weapons and looked expectantly at Jin. "If you're waiting for a handwritten invitation we're fresh out."

Jin hesitated a moment; if they wanted to kill him, and they certainly had good reason to, there would be no better time for it than after he'd strapped himself down. But Nakamaru's instruction had clearly been to both of them, and Koki's words, though spoken roughly, hadn't been hostile. He buckled himself in at the comm station, where he couldn't possibly do any more damage.

Nakamaru cracked his neck twice, making the other two wince, and manoeuvred them carefully towards the outskirts of the crowd where they could find a clear path to jump. Stray shots glanced off the Yunaka's shields but they held firm. The LIPS cruisers had their hands full trying to take down the Lion trader, and with every blast seemingly vanishing into shields, it looked to be a neverending task.

Jin spared one second to offer a mental apology to Kamenashi-of-the-nice-singing-voice before Nakamaru gunned the hyperdrive and stars blurred into starlines. They were travelling faster than light, leaving the Earth behind them.


	4. Chapter 4

**_The next day..._ **

"Don't give me the puppy-dog eyes, kid, you know I'm easily susceptible."

Kame sat in Captain Maynard's office, watching his boss pace a neat circle round the desk, and wondered which expression of his could be considered "puppy-dog eyes". Given his lack of sleep again last night, he thought that "panda eyes" might be more appropriate.

"Ishida blames you for the fiasco yesterday. Says it's your fault for not handling the situation properly, letting the communications get out of control so all hell broke loose out there. I believe he also said you were singing and dancing on duty?"

"One line, sir. I sang one line." Kame tried to maintain his professional composure. "And I wasn't dancing. The internal stabilisers were having a few problems."

"Hmm." The captain ceased his pacing and perched on the edge of his desk. "That's as may be, but the fact remains that you were on the comm with these boys when the situation blew up. It took six hours to clean up the mess and by that point most of the ships in the area had left. It's a miracle no one was killed."

Privately, Kame thought "dumb luck" was a more likely explanation, given how many ships had been firing in the end. "The holographic craft looked real, sir. You can't blame everyone for taking off - they all thought they were under attack by a ship gone rogue. So did we."

"And what should've been a simple stop-and-search turned into a firefight. What happened to the..." Maynard checked his datapad, "...Yunaka? Could they have had a hand in it? You *were* talking to them at the time."

Kame rubbed his eyes and wished the captain didn't look so annoyingly _awake_. "They were the first ones hit, and I know they couldn't have been generating the hologram. I lost sight during all the chaos, though. Should I attempt to trace them, sir?"

"For what was probably an accidental weapons discharge? You're overzealous, kid."

"For firing upon another ship in a secure zone and carrying undeclared personnel. That third man might have been a terrorist! We only have their word for it that the first shot was accidental."

"You probably heard more from him than anyone else - did he sound dangerous?"

"Well..." Kame cast his mind back to the previous day. The third man - Akanishi, if he remembered correctly - hadn't sounded like much of a threat. Sort of goofy and goodnatured, really. Up until he'd started singing, at which point he'd definitely caught Kame's attention. "No," he admitted. "He didn't sound dangerous. Sounded pretty nice, actually."

"Then in the absence of blood-curdling threats to destroy the sanctity of the universe, I'm going to tell you not to worry about him and forget chasing after the Yunaka. We've got bigger things going on than non-payment of fines."

Kame's stomach lurched like a tug caught in a gravity swell. If Ishida had lodged a formal complaint against him, Kame wouldn't need to make up his mind about trying to make sergeant.

Captain Maynard frowned. "You look sick, Kamenashi. Digestive system giving you trouble?"

Kame blinked in surprise. "No, sir - why do you ask?"

"Because I need you to go to a restaurant and you'll be useless if you throw up after the starters. Might be necessary to keep going to dessert, and even, dare I say it, to the coffee and biscuits. All on expenses, of course, so you might as well order the good stuff. No alcohol, mind - this is strictly business."

"What is?" Kame couldn't figure out what his boss was getting at, unless it had something to do with a party to celebrate the impending birth of Lieutenant Bennett's first child.

"The surveillance, of course," Maynard said impatiently. "Weren't you there for the briefing on Monday?"

The briefing, as far as Kame could recall, had involved a discussion on where to hold the unit Christmas party, a chat about the rising price of hyperdrive fuel, and a truly in-depth conversation about Ishida's new hat. Riveting stuff. He didn't remember anything about surveillance in a restaurant, though.

"Remind me, sir."

The captain smiled indulgently. "All right, but only because it's you." He rummaged around the debris on his desk, coming up with a loosely-bound file. "Here. You know the Luminous Steakhouse down on Aldrin Avenue?"

Kame did, though he'd never eaten there. He hadn't been out for many meals since moving to Lunacy. "I...know where it is?"

"Good enough. Take a look at the first profile in your hand - he should be familiar to you."

The profile belonged to one Taguchi Junnosuke, a tall, dark-haired Japanese male with a bright smile and a penchant for video games. More than a penchant, in fact. Taguchi was a thief, with two very unusual quirks to his _modus operandi_ : he only stole from gaming companies and if he encountered any innocents while committing the theft they were always left incapacitated with laughter.

While these traits made him somewhat unusual, they hadn't, till recently, been enough to deserve attention from LIPS. Not until one month ago, when Taguchi had graduated from breaking into buildings on Earth to intercepting supply ships from Saturn, containing the latest in virtual reality consoles. He'd annoyed some big names in the game industry, and with the expansion of his interests to those between planets, he'd earned himself a LIPS file.

Which Kame had inherited. Two weeks ago he'd _nearly_ caught up with Taguchi during a stake-out at the launch of Final Fantasy DCLXII, but the slippery thief had hit him with some sort of gun that left him helpless with laughter for the better part of the afternoon, and Kame had giggled hysterically on the floor while Taguchi, clad in a long black cape and carrying a giant sword, had lost himself in a crowd of cosplayers. "Mortified" didn't even begin to cover it.

"Yeah, he's familiar," Kame said through gritted teeth. "What about him?"

Captain Maynard leant down and pulled the next sheet from the file in Kame's hands. "We've finally received confirmation that he's going to be meeting this fellow here, and *he's* one we're really interested in."

The second profile was headed 'Ueda Tatsuya', and the tiny, badly-blurred photograph depicted a slender figure with plump lips and long, dark hair. That was about all Kame could make out.

He blinked. "That's a pretty girl, sir, but why are we interested in her?"

The captain snorted. "That's no girl, Kamenashi, no matter how pretty she - uh, *he* is. That's the only photograph anyone's ever managed to get of Ueda - we thought we had one with short, blond hair once, but no one believed it was the same person - so take a good look. I want you to bring him in."

"For what, sir?"

"For his involvement in over a hundred serious crimes, of course! Damnit, kid, weren't you paying attention at Monday's briefing?"

Kame rolled his eyes and prayed for some hapless underling to interrupt with a tray of coffee. "I have a bad memory, sir."

Maynard clapped his hands to his head. "Of course you do. I knew that. Ueda's a canny one. Has his hand in everything but never leaves a trail; he's a thinker and he's the one you go to if you want someone to disappear. Doesn't take care of it himself, of course. He's the man with the plan. We think he's behind half the assassinations in Lunacy, only we can't prove anything, and some of his suspected victims have worked for us before.

"He's got a better network of informants than we have, I'll warrant, and they know better than to talk to us. However..." The captain paused for a big dramatic flourish, and seemed disappointed when Kame didn't immediately give him a big, shiny-eyed look of anticipation. "We know he's meeting Taguchi tomorrow night. Ueda, shall we say, dabbles in the acquisition of specialised goods as a sideline, and there's a pair of original Famicom controllers going on display in the museum this weekend. Taguchi will go after them, there's no question about it, and word has it that Ueda has a buyer for one of them. He'll be getting Taguchi to do the work and giving him a cut of the sale."

"If you know this much already, why not just wait till Taguchi strikes the museum and catch him in the act?" Kame asked politely.

Captain Maynard seized the folder from Kame's hands and threw it back on the desk. His eyes shone with fever in a way Kame hadn't seen since the last time the captain had bawled out Ishida for skipping a shift to go to a strip club.

"Do that, and we'll only get Taguchi. Kid, I need you to be in that restaurant, recording their conversation, and we'll be able to get something concrete on Ueda. He's the important one. He always meets his agents in person once before letting them pull the job, and this is the first time we've had the details. I don't give a damn what happens with a couple of antique video game controllers but if I can nail Ueda we'll all be in line for promotion and maybe the academy will stop sending me hopeless slackers." The captain coughed and added, "Present company excepted, of course."

Kame spent the rest of the day filling out paperwork, in such a sleep-deprived daze that he occasionally signed his name 'Akanishi Kazuya' by mistake. This wouldn't have been a problem if Ishida hadn't been peeking over his shoulder at the time, and had somehow managed to remember that 'Akanishi' was the third man on board the Yunaka.

It was a long shift.

\-----

Kame did slightly better in the sleep stakes that night, so by the time he made it to the restaurant the next evening, he felt reasonably confident that he wouldn't end up slumped over his steak. He'd managed to get the location of his quarry's table (Taguchi had made the booking under the not-particularly-subtle alias of 'Sephiroth Strife'), and it hadn't taken much persuasion on his part to guarantee himself and Aya the table next to them.

It certainly helped that the waiter had been so preoccupied with staring down the front of Aya's slinky black shirt that he'd have agreed to anything, up to and including signing his own death warrant. Kame, who'd seen it all before in the line of duty, suppressed a smirk and allowed himself to be shown to his seat.

They were taking no chances of screwing this one up. There were no table ornaments, no shrubs, no forms of decoration, absolutely nothing in the restaurant where a microphone might be secreted and everything was a bright, shiny white - aside from the furniture, which was transparent. Surveillance equipment would've stood out a mile.

They hadn't been able to fill in the steakhouse staff for fear of a leak, which meant Kame couldn't count on assistance from anyone other than Aya and the stunner he knew she had tucked in her evening bag. She sat with her back towards Taguchi's table, the better for the microphone concealed in her elaborate braid tie to pick up their speech.

This left Kame with a good view of his targets, when they arrived.

Taguchi Junnosuke showed up first, looking much more attractive than Kame had remembered. Perhaps it was the lack of a swirling black cape. He beamed brightly at the waiter, made a joke about "trouble and Strife", and settled down with a handheld game console to wait for Ueda, content to ignore the disgruntled stares of his fellow patrons.

Ueda Tatsuya put in an appearance at the same time as Kame's starter, nearly causing the unfortunate LIPS officer to spill soup down his shirt. Other diners, less coordinated, suffered unavoidable damage to their clothing.

Ueda's fault for being striking, Kame thought. The blurred photo hadn't done him justice by any means. Long, black hair spilled over the shoulders of his matching coat, which gaped open on a velvet V-neck with silver trim. The man was a study in black and silver; delicate, like fine jewellery, yet solid steel at the core. All eyes in the restaurant turned to watch as he took his seat...and every single one of them looked away again a second later.

Aya, chewing noisily on her chicken wing, had missed the whole spectacle. "Oi, Kamenashi, why does it feel like the temperature just dropped fifty degrees in here?"

"Ueda," Kame mouthed silently. He and Aya both had earpieces tucked under their hair so they could follow everything picked up by the microphone in addition to recording it on the small chip embedded in Kame's skull ring; the mic was controlled by a set of hidden buttons on Aya's bracelet.

They were treated to five minutes of Ueda and Taguchi placing their orders - the waiter kept dropping the stylus as he tapped the details into his datapad, which dragged the process out considerably - and it wasn't until the drinks arrived that the real conversation started.

"It's off," Ueda said flatly. "Thanks for dinner."

Taguchi's smile faltered for a brief moment before resuming its million-kilowatt brilliance. "But...but you said if I met you in person, we'd be okay. I didn't pass?"

Ueda shrugged. "Nothing to do with you. I was going to ask you to pick up a little something else for me while you were in there, but it was stolen a couple of days ago, before the museum ship left Earth, and I know it won't be on display anymore. Pull the job if you want but I'm not interested."

"And the buyer?"

"There was no buyer."

Kame groaned inwardly; the mouthful of sirloin steak, delicious only a second ago, lost its flavour and he swallowed it down with a gulp. If there wasn't going to be a crime committed, he was hardly going to get anything incriminating on Ueda.

Taguchi looked confused, sheepish, and slightly miffed all at the same time. "I'm kind of in a tight spot financially right now," he admitted. "I was counting on the sale. You think you could find a buyer, if I come out with both controllers?"

"I'm sure there are other gaming addicts out there who are as obsessed as you," Ueda assured him. "Though most of them aren't so..."

"Charming? Out-going? Handsome?"

"Narcissistic. I've never met a guy with so many pictures of himself in his room. Talking to you over the comm was very educational."

Aya giggled. "Is he good-looking, Kamenashi?" she whispered. "I can't see behind me."

Both of them were, though Kame wasn't going to admit it aloud. He waved his fork to hush her and stared at the side of Ueda's head, willing him to say something useful.

Taguchi unwittingly lent him a helping hand after he'd tucked into his main course with relish and he and Ueda had made comical small talk concerning tap dancers and vampires. "So what were you going to ask me to get for you?"

Hostile silence swamped their table, and Kame shook his earpiece irritably. He could see Ueda's mouth moving, but nothing was reaching him through the microphone. It took him a moment to realise that Ueda wasn't even whispering, merely mouthing the words. Kame's lip-reading wasn't bad, but his eyesight wasn't fantastic - consequently, he couldn't be sure he was picking up the correct words.

"Why's it called that?" Taguchi asked at normal volume.

"Don't you keep up with the news?"

"I'm not a jewel thief. The only diamond I'm interested in is a virtual baseball one."

"And the only one *I'm* interested in is Kizuna," Ueda said. "Named for the small flaw in the centre that looks like a pair of entwined rings - a bond, you know? It was supposed to go on display here this weekend, but it was stolen from a jewellery store in Tokyo a few days ago and no one's seen it since."

Ueda's expression was darker than his wardrobe; he was furious, albeit in an understated way. Kame slipped a discreet hand under his jacket to reassure himself that his stunner was within easy reach.

Aya raised an eyebrow at him. "This isn't the time to be feeling yourself up, Kamenashi."

"I'm not - oh, forget it." Kame didn't want to get embroiled in conversation lest he miss something at the next table; it was easier to let Aya think whatever she wanted.

Taguchi completely misread the danger signs written in large letters all over Ueda's face. "You've got a buyer all lined up, huh? And now you don't know where the diamond is."

"Don't think I won't find out." Ueda glowered at his giant T-bone steak with such venom that the meat practically separated itself from the bone with no need for a knife and fork.

Heavy boots clomped across the pristine restaurant floor, scattering serving staff in their wake, and Kame tore his eyes away from Ueda's lips to find he and Aya were no longer the only LIPS officers in the room.

Ishida Makoto and his fanclub had arrived.

"Nobody move!" Ishida strode up to them, groupies at his heels, and flashed his badge in Ueda's face. "Don't even think about going for a gun."

Ueda favoured Ishida with the same glare he'd used on his steak, but to less effect. "I'm not carrying a gun," he said mildly. "I don't believe in dressing up for dinner."

The comment went down well with Taguchi; less so with Ishida, to judge by his snarl. Kame was torn between demanding to know what the hell he thought he was playing at, and staying absolutely still in the hopes that no one would notice him. He went with the latter option.

"Don't believe in paying your parking tickets either, do you?" Ishida sneered. He waved a fistful of papers under Ueda's nose, dropping a few on his plate.

Ueda pushed his parking-ticket-covered food away in disgust and rose from the table, only to be pushed back down by Carl. "Not so fast," the big LIPS officer cautioned.

The temperature dropped another twenty degrees. "Take your hands off me before I break them."

"Four hundred and twelve unpaid parking tickets _and_ threatening an officer of the law!" Ishida crowed. "Ladies and gentleman, Ueda Tatsuya-san has just won himself an all-expenses paid trip down to his local LIPS station!"

Taguchi scratched his nose. "You guys are LIPS? Then why do you care about parking tickets?"

Kame thought this was a valid point. Parking tickets, even those relating to spaceships, were generally the concern of the regular police force.

Ishida flashed the tickets before Taguchi's eyes. "He's parked his automobile illegally in two hundred and eight different cities, covering four planets, two moons..." he hesitated as he read out the top ticket, sounding slightly incredulous, "...and one semi-deserted asteroid?"

"I don't even own a car!" Ueda protested.

"Save your story for the courts."

Ishida pulled out a pair of handcuffs just in time to get his eye blackened by Ueda's killer left hook.

\-----

"And that's when the fight started," Kame finished. He'd been called into Captain Maynard's office again, this time to explain why Ishida was skulking around with a swollen face and Ueda and Taguchi were both residing in Kurogin orbital prison.

The captain frowned. He'd been doing that a lot lately. "And where were you while all this was going on?"

"About half-way through my main course, sir."

"I see." Maynard pressed a button on his desk; the office was immediately filled with a low whine. The privacy settings were on high. "Look, Kamenashi, I like you, and more importantly, I trust you. So I trust that what I'm about to say won't leave this room. You got that, kid?"

Kame fervently hoped that the married father-of-two wasn't about to proposition him. Sleeping his way up the ranks wasn't an appealing prospect. "Got it, sir."

Maynard nodded. "I just wanted you to know that...Ishida and the others weren't acting on my orders last night. Or rather, Ishida wasn't. The rest will do as he says; I don't blame them for their part in it."

That was a surprise. "I...didn't expect to see them there. If we had all those parking tickets on Ueda, why not use them before?"

"Because we didn't have them. False, every last one. Somebody else knew Ueda was going to be there last night and wanted to make damned sure Ishida got to him, cutting you, me and everyone else out of the loop." The captain rubbed a weary hand across his brow.

"And Taguchi?"

"I think he was incidental. If he hadn't gotten caught up in the fight, he'd probably have walked."

From Kame's recollection, it wasn't so much that Taguchi had "gotten caught up in the fight", as that he'd accidentally tripped up Carl while diving for cover under the table. It had been enough to earn him a cell next to Ueda's.

"No, Ueda's the one they were after," Captain Maynard continued. "I've suspected Ishida of moonlighting for a good few months now, and nothing anywhere near as legal as your sideline as a poledancer!"

Kame felt his cheeks grow warm. "It was just one night, sir. I couldn't pay my bar tab, that's all."

Maynard winked. "Of course it was. Excellent performance, I thought. Must take the wife there sometime, I bet she'd like it.

"Anyway, my primary concern is that Ishida may be working for Johnny Kitagawa - on a freelance basis, at least. The old man's got his finger in a lot of pies, and if he didn't have help on this side of the law he'd have gone under by now. It would've been child's play to have those parking tickets faked, and if anyone could've known Ueda was in Lunacy, it would've been him."

Kame had heard of the Kitagawa Family - he'd lived in Tokyo, after all - but he'd never had dealings with them personally and maintained he was safer that way. Getting involved with gangsters, no matter how many legal interests they had, didn't do wonders for one's life expectancy.

"Ishida wants something from Ueda," Maynard mused. "He plans to question him personally. There wasn't much on the recording you and Aya got, though, and frankly, the man never struck me as the type to want video game controllers, no matter how valuable."

"They cancelled the job," Kame said absently, thinking back over the conversation. "Taguchi wanted to go ahead because he needed the money, and Ueda said he could probably find a buyer but he wasn't keen. He hadn't wanted the controllers in the first place."

Maynard snorted. "I know *that*, kid, but Ueda never said what he was after!"

 _But Ueda had, hadn't he?_ Kame remembered. _Kizuna._

"Sir, you know anything about diamonds?"


	5. Chapter 5

"This isn't Jupiter," Jin complained as the Yunaka settled into orbit around Mercury. "We jumped in the wrong direction!"

Koki looked up from the toolbox long enough to wave a wrench at him. "We filed a flight plan to Jupiter and left Earth's local space illegally - you think we're going to go where we said we were going and just wait for them to pick us up?"

Jin pretended he hadn't said anything and turned his attention to Nakamaru instead. While Koki prepared to go out and fix the communications array, the pilot was muttering quietly to himself over the controls.

"Um," Jin ventured, "are we going to Mercury?"

Nakamaru shook his head. "Nah. We're just going to hang out here a little while Koki suits up and does some repairs, then we'll be on our way. We've got to meet a buyer on Neptune before we do anything else, so-"

"You have to tell our resident stowaway all the details?" Koki asked, annoyed.

"Come on, Koki, it's not like we can just drop him off in the middle of space, can we? And I don't think he's a bad guy."

"I'm not!" Jin chimed in. "I'm really sorry about accidentally firing your weapons, and trying to take you hostage, and the communications array, and-"

"Just...stop apologising," Koki said wearily. "We're not going to kick you out, all right? You're a handful, but," he mumbled the next bit, "that was impressive, what you pulled off back there."

He donned a protective suit and headed for the airlock before Jin could register the praise.

Nakamaru grinned. "Koki must like you."

Jin certainly hoped so, because it didn't look like they were going to be making port any time soon and he didn't want to be stuck on a ship full of hostility. He could've stayed at home for that.

He hadn't really had a chance to stop and take stock of the situation since he'd been found hiding in the cargo hold, and it was a relief to just sit for a moment and not have to worry about getting shot, discovered, or otherwise endangered. What had he gotten himself into? Far from hitching a ride with a couple of entertainers, he'd gone on the run with a couple of jewel thieves. Not quite what Jin had had in mind when he'd wanted to leave Earth.

"Hey." It took a few seconds for Jin to realise Nakamaru was prodding him with a gentle finger. "You all right? You spaced out for a bit."

Jin squirmed - the finger was getting a little too close to his collarbone. "Fine. But I have no idea what's going on."

Sad to say, this wasn't an unusual state of affairs.

Nakamaru offered him a consoling smile. "Don't worry about it. You're in this as deep as we are now - I guess a guy so desperate to leave Earth that he has to stow away isn't going to turn in a couple of jewel thieves, is he?"

"Turn you in for what?" Jin said airily. "I didn't see anything." He clapped Nakamaru soundly on the shoulder and went to retrieve his backpack from where he'd left it in the cargo hold. The other man made no move to stop him.

\-----

Six hours later, the Yunaka, complete with a working communications array, was making preparations to leave for Neptune. Introductions had been done properly, if not thoroughly - Jin didn't want to mention old man Kitagawa, on the off-chance that his new friends were acquainted with him, so he simply said he'd run away from Earth to escape family problems. He'd received a raised eyebrow and a couple of sympathetic nods in return, but no one said anything.

Koki and Nakamaru, as it turned out, where also from Tokyo, though they hadn't lived there for over a year, choosing to eke out a life between the stars aboard their jointly-owned ship. Firm friends, they'd taken up thievery to indulge in Koki's love of accessories, and because Nakamaru wanted to do something to break himself out of what was shaping up to be a very dull life.

"We only go for the good stuff, though," Koki assured Jin. "None of your cubic zirconia junk."

Nakamaru burst out laughing. "He says that now, but you should've seen him drooling over gold-plated studs."

Koki pulled a face. "Shut up."

"So why performers?" Jin wanted to know.

"It makes a great cover story for all the travelling we do," Nakamaru explained. "Plus, it's fun!"

Jin couldn't argue with that, and when his new friends tossed him a beer from the fridge and graciously let him have first pick of the snack selection, he didn't feel inclined to argue with anything ever again.

He'd just settled down with a bag of double-chocolate chip cookies when a text-only message popped up on the main viewscreen in the cockpit. Jin couldn't see it clearly - Nakamaru's head was in the way - but he knew it couldn't be good news when Koki thumped his fist down on the console in front of him and began swearing up a storm.

"It's our buyer," Nakamaru said. "He's got some business in Lunacy and wants to meet us there instead to make the sale."

"And we don't want to be anywhere near Earth or its moon for a while." Koki had calmed down. "We can't skip out, though - the deal's worth millions and we need a new hyperdrive."

Privately, Jin thought what they actually needed was a new ship, but he managed to stop himself from blurting this out by cramming a cookie in his mouth. He made what he hoped was a suitable sound of concern, and Koki nodded at him.

"Exactly! I said the same thing only last week."

Jin wasn't sure what Koki thought he'd said, but it was good that they were in accord. He gulped down the rest of the cookie and looked at the message again. "This ship isn't wanted for anything other than an accidental weapons discharge, right? And you guys don't have records?"

"We haven't had time to get to a studio lately-" Koki began, sounding defensive, but Nakamaru interrupted.

"Right, we don't have criminal records. But if LIPS have a bulletin out for us on their system, we'll be flagged up the moment anyone checks our registration - which they will do if we go in to land. We don't have any shuttles - we want to go to Lunacy, we have to land there, and there's no way to do it under the radar in a city."

"Would your buyer be willing to meet you on your own ship?" Jin asked. "He'd want to see the goods, right?"

Koki's voice was glum. "We were supposed to meet on neutral ground. With a sample. He was going to send an agent to do the actual work once he'd decided he wanted to do business."

"Hmm. This ship's not exactly inconspicuous." Jin was thinking of the bombshell blonde painted on the side. "Using a false reg won't help, not if there's a description out. But that's assuming they're definitely interested in finding the Yunaka again."

Nakamaru stole one of Jin's cookies. "You think otherwise?"

Jin shrugged. He wasn't exactly an expert on how the minds of security forces worked. "I just think they were messing around with us - that Ishida guy, definitely - and it was obvious the shot was an accident. Come on, who deliberately fires on another ship in front of LIPS? They probably just think we're uncoordinated idiots - don't look at me like that, you guys - and they're busy with more important things."

It took him another ten minutes to make his point: that they couldn't be blamed for leaving Earth's local space when everyone else had done the same thing, and all they had against them was an accidental discharge, which merely carried a fine.

"A fine we're not that well-equipped to pay," Nakamaru said. "All our assets are in the cargo hold right now - everything else went on hull repairs and Koki's salon bills."

"It didn't cost *me* that much to go blond," Jin murmured, looking askance at Koki's hair.

Still, they could scrape together the means if they had to. It figured Jin stowed away with a couple of guys in a less than ideal financial situation; he was hardly burdened by reserves himself.

It was decided in the end that it was worth the risk. They weren't talking about more than a fine, if that, and the only people who might have reason to cause trouble for them were the crew of one solitary LIPS cruiser.

Who they'd never encounter again, of course, because what were the odds of that?

\-----

"You think it's the same guys?" Jin panted as he scrabbled frantically at his seat restraints.

The Yunaka was picking up speed, Nakamaru pushing her as hard as he dared while he waited for the hyperdrive to warm up. They couldn't jump to safety, not yet, and the purple and white LIPS cruiser on their tail wasn't going to give them the chance.

"Of course it's the same guys!" Koki's hands were a blur, simultaneously activating the shield generators and arming the weapons. "Why else would they be chasing us?"

Nakamaru wiped the sweat from his forehead and stared grimly at the panel before him. "They're trying to talk. Someone else get it; I have to concentrate on going round that asteroid instead of through it!"

With the other two busy, the task would've fallen to Jin anyway, but he happened to be sitting at the comm as well. He accepted the incoming message; his heart almost stopped when the small screen in front of him flared to life. The Murasaki had given up communicating on audio-only - they had video now too, and once Jin's heart had recovered from the surprise, it started dancing a salsa against his ribcage.

The man on the other end of the connection - a boy, really, and probably younger than Jin himself - wasn't goodlooking, exactly, but he was striking in a way that made Jin want to keep staring at him, watch him from every angle, try to figure out how a face could seem odd and awkward one second and strangely beautiful the next. Jin was still making his own transition from gawky teen to the smoothness of adulthood, though he liked to think that it was almost over; this boy still had a good way to go, but the final result was sure to be worth waiting for. The signs were all there.

When the LIPS officer spoke, Jin didn't hear him at first. Violent yells from the bridge of the Murasaki drowned out the sweet, slightly-raspy voice, and when Jin finally registered that he was being addressed, the sweetness had been replaced by stern impatience.

"I said, cut your engines! Or we'll lock on with a tractor beam and you'll blow them anyway if you try to move!"

Jin shook himself into awareness. "Are you Kamenashi?" he blurted out.

"Huh?" The officer seemed to lose concentration for a moment. "Yeah, I'm Kamenashi. Cut your engines."

"What?"

Kamenashi sighed. "Are you an idiot? E-N-G-I-N-E-S."

"Not an idiot." Jin produced his best pout, then realised Kamenashi couldn't see it. He flipped a switch to make the video communication two-way, letting the other man get a good look at him. Kamenashi's gasp, hastily smothered, convinced Jin he'd done the right thing.

"You're Akanishi, right?"

"You remembered!" Jin was happy, right up until he realised Kamenashi was reaching for the instrumentation panel in front of him - probably to get a lock with a tractor beam.

"I always remember the people who cause problems for me." Kamenashi's eyes bore into Jin like thermal lances, and Jin stared right back, not caring how uncomfortable it felt to have his skin, his self, his _soul_ seared by the flame. Then Kamenashi's hand moved, and the screen went dark.

Seconds later, the Yunaka rocked violently and stopped dead, throwing everyone into their seat restraints.

Nakamaru scurried to shut down the sub-light engines before they could overheat. "They've got us in a tractor beam!"

"Tell me something I don't know!" Koki retorted as the ship began a slow crawl back towards her harrier. "Akanishi, what the hell did you say to them?"

"It's not my fault!" Jin tried to get the connection back, but the LIPS cruiser didn't respond. What had he done to annoy Kamenashi so much? Okay, so there was that little incident with the holographic ship, but Jin couldn't be held responsible for that, could he? He hadn't actually done anything himself. Certainly nothing worthy of being chased halfway from Earth's moon to Mars, and then getting hauled in by tractor beam.

Nakamaru slumped down in his seat. "We're too small to break free - we'd blow ourselves up in trying. Might as well sit back and start working on your pleas to the judge, because we're going to have company in a few minutes and there's absolutely no way they're going to miss the stash in the cargo hold. We don't have enough hidden compartments to take more than a third of it."

"There has to be *something* we can do," Jin said. "We can't just give up!"

"If you've got any ideas that don't involve us declaring war on an armed security ship or getting ourselves killed, you've got about five minutes to put them into practice," Koki advised, taking out a comb and fixing his hair for their unwanted guests.

Not surprisingly, Jin didn't.


	6. Chapter 6

"This isn't Jupiter," Jin complained as the Yunaka settled into orbit around Mercury. "We jumped in the wrong direction!"

Koki looked up from the toolbox long enough to wave a wrench at him. "We filed a flight plan to Jupiter and left Earth's local space illegally - you think we're going to go where we said we were going and just wait for them to pick us up?"

Jin pretended he hadn't said anything and turned his attention to Nakamaru instead. While Koki prepared to go out and fix the communications array, the pilot was muttering quietly to himself over the controls.

"Um," Jin ventured, "are we going to Mercury?"

Nakamaru shook his head. "Nah. We're just going to hang out here a little while Koki suits up and does some repairs, then we'll be on our way. We've got to meet a buyer on Neptune before we do anything else, so-"

"You have to tell our resident stowaway all the details?" Koki asked, annoyed.

"Come on, Koki, it's not like we can just drop him off in the middle of space, can we? And I don't think he's a bad guy."

"I'm not!" Jin chimed in. "I'm really sorry about accidentally firing your weapons, and trying to take you hostage, and the communications array, and-"

"Just...stop apologising," Koki said wearily. "We're not going to kick you out, all right? You're a handful, but," he mumbled the next bit, "that was impressive, what you pulled off back there."

He donned a protective suit and headed for the airlock before Jin could register the praise.

Nakamaru grinned. "Koki must like you."

Jin certainly hoped so, because it didn't look like they were going to be making port any time soon and he didn't want to be stuck on a ship full of hostility. He could've stayed at home for that.

He hadn't really had a chance to stop and take stock of the situation since he'd been found hiding in the cargo hold, and it was a relief to just sit for a moment and not have to worry about getting shot, discovered, or otherwise endangered. What had he gotten himself into? Far from hitching a ride with a couple of entertainers, he'd gone on the run with a couple of jewel thieves. Not quite what Jin had had in mind when he'd wanted to leave Earth.

"Hey." It took a few seconds for Jin to realise Nakamaru was prodding him with a gentle finger. "You all right? You spaced out for a bit."

Jin squirmed - the finger was getting a little too close to his collarbone. "Fine. But I have no idea what's going on."

Sad to say, this wasn't an unusual state of affairs.

Nakamaru offered him a consoling smile. "Don't worry about it. You're in this as deep as we are now - I guess a guy so desperate to leave Earth that he has to stow away isn't going to turn in a couple of jewel thieves, is he?"

"Turn you in for what?" Jin said airily. "I didn't see anything." He clapped Nakamaru soundly on the shoulder and went to retrieve his backpack from where he'd left it in the cargo hold. The other man made no move to stop him.

\-----

Six hours later, the Yunaka, complete with a working communications array, was making preparations to leave for Neptune. Introductions had been done properly, if not thoroughly - Jin didn't want to mention old man Kitagawa, on the off-chance that his new friends were acquainted with him, so he simply said he'd run away from Earth to escape family problems. He'd received a raised eyebrow and a couple of sympathetic nods in return, but no one said anything.

Koki and Nakamaru, as it turned out, where also from Tokyo, though they hadn't lived there for over a year, choosing to eke out a life between the stars aboard their jointly-owned ship. Firm friends, they'd taken up thievery to indulge in Koki's love of accessories, and because Nakamaru wanted to do something to break himself out of what was shaping up to be a very dull life.

"We only go for the good stuff, though," Koki assured Jin. "None of your cubic zirconia junk."

Nakamaru burst out laughing. "He says that now, but you should've seen him drooling over gold-plated studs."

Koki pulled a face. "Shut up."

"So why performers?" Jin wanted to know.

"It makes a great cover story for all the travelling we do," Nakamaru explained. "Plus, it's fun!"

Jin couldn't argue with that, and when his new friends tossed him a beer from the fridge and graciously let him have first pick of the snack selection, he didn't feel inclined to argue with anything ever again.

He'd just settled down with a bag of double-chocolate chip cookies when a text-only message popped up on the main viewscreen in the cockpit. Jin couldn't see it clearly - Nakamaru's head was in the way - but he knew it couldn't be good news when Koki thumped his fist down on the console in front of him and began swearing up a storm.

"It's our buyer," Nakamaru said. "He's got some business in Lunacy and wants to meet us there instead to make the sale."

"And we don't want to be anywhere near Earth or its moon for a while." Koki had calmed down. "We can't skip out, though - the deal's worth millions and we need a new hyperdrive."

Privately, Jin thought what they actually needed was a new ship, but he managed to stop himself from blurting this out by cramming a cookie in his mouth. He made what he hoped was a suitable sound of concern, and Koki nodded at him.

"Exactly! I said the same thing only last week."

Jin wasn't sure what Koki thought he'd said, but it was good that they were in accord. He gulped down the rest of the cookie and looked at the message again. "This ship isn't wanted for anything other than an accidental weapons discharge, right? And you guys don't have records?"

"We haven't had time to get to a studio lately-" Koki began, sounding defensive, but Nakamaru interrupted.

"Right, we don't have criminal records. But if LIPS have a bulletin out for us on their system, we'll be flagged up the moment anyone checks our registration - which they will do if we go in to land. We don't have any shuttles - we want to go to Lunacy, we have to land there, and there's no way to do it under the radar in a city."

"Would your buyer be willing to meet you on your own ship?" Jin asked. "He'd want to see the goods, right?"

Koki's voice was glum. "We were supposed to meet on neutral ground. With a sample. He was going to send an agent to do the actual work once he'd decided he wanted to do business."

"Hmm. This ship's not exactly inconspicuous." Jin was thinking of the bombshell blonde painted on the side. "Using a false reg won't help, not if there's a description out. But that's assuming they're definitely interested in finding the Yunaka again."

Nakamaru stole one of Jin's cookies. "You think otherwise?"

Jin shrugged. He wasn't exactly an expert on how the minds of security forces worked. "I just think they were messing around with us - that Ishida guy, definitely - and it was obvious the shot was an accident. Come on, who deliberately fires on another ship in front of LIPS? They probably just think we're uncoordinated idiots - don't look at me like that, you guys - and they're busy with more important things."

It took him another ten minutes to make his point: that they couldn't be blamed for leaving Earth's local space when everyone else had done the same thing, and all they had against them was an accidental discharge, which merely carried a fine.

"A fine we're not that well-equipped to pay," Nakamaru said. "All our assets are in the cargo hold right now - everything else went on hull repairs and Koki's salon bills."

"It didn't cost *me* that much to go blond," Jin murmured, looking askance at Koki's hair.

Still, they could scrape together the means if they had to. It figured Jin stowed away with a couple of guys in a less than ideal financial situation; he was hardly burdened by reserves himself.

It was decided in the end that it was worth the risk. They weren't talking about more than a fine, if that, and the only people who might have reason to cause trouble for them were the crew of one solitary LIPS cruiser.

Who they'd never encounter again, of course, because what were the odds of that?

\-----

"You think it's the same guys?" Jin panted as he scrabbled frantically at his seat restraints.

The Yunaka was picking up speed, Nakamaru pushing her as hard as he dared while he waited for the hyperdrive to warm up. They couldn't jump to safety, not yet, and the purple and white LIPS cruiser on their tail wasn't going to give them the chance.

"Of course it's the same guys!" Koki's hands were a blur, simultaneously activating the shield generators and arming the weapons. "Why else would they be chasing us?"

Nakamaru wiped the sweat from his forehead and stared grimly at the panel before him. "They're trying to talk. Someone else get it; I have to concentrate on going round that asteroid instead of through it!"

With the other two busy, the task would've fallen to Jin anyway, but he happened to be sitting at the comm as well. He accepted the incoming message; his heart almost stopped when the small screen in front of him flared to life. The Murasaki had given up communicating on audio-only - they had video now too, and once Jin's heart had recovered from the surprise, it started dancing a salsa against his ribcage.

The man on the other end of the connection - a boy, really, and probably younger than Jin himself - wasn't goodlooking, exactly, but he was striking in a way that made Jin want to keep staring at him, watch him from every angle, try to figure out how a face could seem odd and awkward one second and strangely beautiful the next. Jin was still making his own transition from gawky teen to the smoothness of adulthood, though he liked to think that it was almost over; this boy still had a good way to go, but the final result was sure to be worth waiting for. The signs were all there.

When the LIPS officer spoke, Jin didn't hear him at first. Violent yells from the bridge of the Murasaki drowned out the sweet, slightly-raspy voice, and when Jin finally registered that he was being addressed, the sweetness had been replaced by stern impatience.

"I said, cut your engines! Or we'll lock on with a tractor beam and you'll blow them anyway if you try to move!"

Jin shook himself into awareness. "Are you Kamenashi?" he blurted out.

"Huh?" The officer seemed to lose concentration for a moment. "Yeah, I'm Kamenashi. Cut your engines."

"What?"

Kamenashi sighed. "Are you an idiot? E-N-G-I-N-E-S."

"Not an idiot." Jin produced his best pout, then realised Kamenashi couldn't see it. He flipped a switch to make the video communication two-way, letting the other man get a good look at him. Kamenashi's gasp, hastily smothered, convinced Jin he'd done the right thing.

"You're Akanishi, right?"

"You remembered!" Jin was happy, right up until he realised Kamenashi was reaching for the instrumentation panel in front of him - probably to get a lock with a tractor beam.

"I always remember the people who cause problems for me." Kamenashi's eyes bore into Jin like thermal lances, and Jin stared right back, not caring how uncomfortable it felt to have his skin, his self, his _soul_ seared by the flame. Then Kamenashi's hand moved, and the screen went dark.

Seconds later, the Yunaka rocked violently and stopped dead, throwing everyone into their seat restraints.

Nakamaru scurried to shut down the sub-light engines before they could overheat. "They've got us in a tractor beam!"

"Tell me something I don't know!" Koki retorted as the ship began a slow crawl back towards her harrier. "Akanishi, what the hell did you say to them?"

"It's not my fault!" Jin tried to get the connection back, but the LIPS cruiser didn't respond. What had he done to annoy Kamenashi so much? Okay, so there was that little incident with the holographic ship, but Jin couldn't be held responsible for that, could he? He hadn't actually done anything himself. Certainly nothing worthy of being chased halfway from Earth's moon to Mars, and then getting hauled in by tractor beam.

Nakamaru slumped down in his seat. "We're too small to break free - we'd blow ourselves up in trying. Might as well sit back and start working on your pleas to the judge, because we're going to have company in a few minutes and there's absolutely no way they're going to miss the stash in the cargo hold. We don't have enough hidden compartments to take more than a third of it."

"There has to be *something* we can do," Jin said. "We can't just give up!"

"If you've got any ideas that don't involve us declaring war on an armed security ship or getting ourselves killed, you've got about five minutes to put them into practice," Koki advised, taking out a comb and fixing his hair for their unwanted guests.

Not surprisingly, Jin didn't.


	7. Chapter 7

Kame knew he shouldn't have accepted a congratulatory drink from the rest of his unit. Every alarm bell in his body, of which there were many, rang loud and clear to warn him that partaking of any substance that had ever existed in the general vicinity of Ishida Makoto was a really bad idea. Fatal, even.

But it had felt so good, hearing them cheer him on.

Praise from his superiors, for all that it meant a lot to Kame, was far easier to earn than praise from his peers. Just once, to have the rest of the unit rally round him and toast him for his part in apprehending the Yunaka...that one time made up for so many months of being ignored, or taunted, or otherwise mistreated.

At least, Kame liked to pretend it did, though he knew better than to hope that things had changed. They were indulging him for this one night, caught up in the excitement of catching three jewellery thieves, and they'd toss him away again in the morning.

But for one night...he was part of the team. So he took the beer Ishida opened for him, knocked back half of it in the first swallow, and let himself drown in a tide of approval. He could worry about it in the morning.

If any of them ever got to see morning, anyway. It had been nearly the end of Kame's shift, a day spent out on patrol in orbit over Lunacy and watching Ishida's every move, when he'd spotted a familiar craft during a visual sweep of the area. With a hull painted like that, it was hard to miss the Yunaka. Kame had set aside both his regular duty and his Ishida-watchdogging to elbow his way in front of Carl and change course before the burly pilot had even realised his hands were no longer touching the controls.

He'd surprised himself by yelling back at Ishida's demands to know what was going on, insisting that he was going after the Yunaka. As far as everyone else was concerned, the ship was wanted for minor offenses only. Probable accidental weapons discharge, an undeclared crew member, skipping out on a check. Nothing really worth wasting the last ten minutes of their shift on, anyway, not when they could be slowly making their way back towards Lunacy and the bright lights of home.

Kame didn't care about the time, not once he'd double-checked the ship's registration. He hadn't forgotten who he'd been talking to during the holoship fiasco, who'd gotten him into trouble for succumbing to Akanishi's voice and singing a single line, who'd earned him the blame for the whole mess. No matter how beautifully Akanishi sang, it wasn't enough to get him off the hook with Kame, and if he had to get the man to stand up in court and swear that Kame had in no way been responsible for the fight breaking out, he'd do it.

Because he knew it had to have been the crew of the Yunaka. Oh, certainly, they hadn't fired any shots after that first one, and they couldn't have generated the hologram, but the timing was far too convenient for it to have been anyone else. Kame didn't appreciate having accusations of incompetence levelled at him...even if he *had* allowed himself to be (temporarily) distracted by the performance. A deliberate distraction, he was certain, intended to keep him from noticing their little ploy.

Kame didn't mind playing the fool for a good cause...but he wasn't to be made a fool of, and that meant he wanted the Yunaka.

They'd had to chase them halfway to Mars, with Kame having to justify himself at top volume the entire time, but they'd caught them in the end, and when they'd boarded and found a fortune in jewellery in the cargo hold, it had all been worth it. Justified, at last.

Ishida, in particular, had been thrilled, though he'd been infuriated right up until he'd seen the jewels. "All right, rookie, I admit - you were onto something good. And never let it be said that I can't own up when I'm wrong. Isn't that right, guys?"

This had been met by a chorus of just how magnanimous and unbelievably awesome Ishida was, which Kame didn't believe for a second, but when the jerk threw an arm round his shoulders and said he'd be retracting every complaint he'd ever made about Kame - all fifty-two of them - it was, whether true or not, a measure of comfort.

Which is why, instead of following procedure and taking both the Yunaka and its former occupants down to Lunacy and processing them at the station, Kame's high-spirited unit had opted to go directly to the holding cells at Kurogin orbital prison. It was closer, and even though they were all technically off the clock now, no one wanted to miss the unloading of the stolen goods. Everyone was curious about the total value, and Kame had no doubt that a few of them were hoping to make off with a few trinkets as souvenirs before the cataloguing was complete. He'd gotten the impression, in his brief time with Ishida's unit, that such things were commonplace for them, but nothing had happened since he'd been there and he had no proof.

Besides, everyone except Kame wanted to make Ishida happy, and he'd been in a terrible mood since questioning Ueda last night. The black eye probably hadn't helped matters.

"Have another drink," Carl said, offering Kame a second can. They were all sitting in Kurogin's break room, waiting for Tanaka Koki, Nakamaru Yuichi, and Akanishi Jin to be processed, and the alcohol was flowing freely.

Kame waved his hand. "No thanks. Someone's got to stay sober enough to fly us home." And from the looks of things, he was going to be the only real candidate.

"Oh, didn't anyone tell you? Gustav won't be drinking tonight - not allowed to, with his meds - so he'll be taking the helm on the way home. Besides, I'm not drinking *much*, and you know I can fly blind drunk with both hands tied behind my back if I have to. Matter of fact, that's a funny story. Let me tell you 'bout the time I-"

"Thanks for the drink." Kame grabbed the can from Carl's hand and found himself a chair at the table nearest the door. He had no intention of drinking it, though. He wanted his wits about him.

To watch Ishida. Not that there was any great pleasure to be derived from doing so, but the man's sudden about-face was undeniably suspicious. The moment he'd emerged from the Yunaka's cargo hold...that was it. He'd been fuming right up until he went to have a look for himself; two minutes later, he was all smiles and sunshine.

"He's probably going to take all the credit," Kame muttered to himself, and frowned at the way his words were slurring. He couldn't be drunk, could he? He hadn't even finished his first beer, and he normally held his alcohol better than that.

"Here." Ishida popped up beside him with a disposable cup. "You look like you could use this instead." When Kame looked dubiously at the steaming coffee, wary of a trick, he added, "Just a coffee, rookie. Got it out of the machine right now. You don't want it, I'll drink it myself. See?" He took a sip.

Kame smiled awkwardly. "I'll take it, then. Thanks." Another one to add to his drink collection.

Ishida set it down between Kame's two cans of beer, flashed him the sort of grin that generally set the hearts of his groupies aflame, and went to talk to Carl. Kame blew on the hot liquid till it cooled enough to drink and took a few tentative sips. Not bad, for prison coffee.

It didn't do anything to sober him up, though. In fact, Kame reflected hazily as he drained the cup to the dregs, he actually felt *worse* now. There was a tightness in his chest - not painful, yet, but uncomfortable - and his vision was beginning to blur around the edges. Thinking about Ishida, and what he might be planning, seemed like a lot of work. Too much work. Kame couldn't focus on finding hidden meanings, couldn't concentrate on unravelling layers within layers, fathoming lies and bluffs and secrets he didn't want to guess at. He wasn't a detective, damnit. He was just a security officer, following orders, and maybe sometimes he got lucky, put things together at the right time in the right place.

And why shouldn't he? He was good at his job, right? The captain wanted him to take the sergeant's exam already and he knew damned well he was better than everyone else in his unit. Worked much harder, conducted himself more like a LIPS officer should.

Not like all the layabouts he worked with, no sir. Kame's lip curled in a sneer as he surveyed the room; there were three felons locked up only a few doors down and nobody was making any move to question them. Why, they could be part of a much larger organisation, whose members were just waiting for Kame to break down their doors and slap the cuffs on them! He couldn't just sit around and wait...no, not like Carl, who had moved onto a story about how he'd once flown a fighter through an asteroid field while tranked on painkillers, or Aya, who was so relaxed that she was actually reapplying her eyeliner.

"You're too lax," Kame complained.

Aya grinned. "Yeah, but did you see those three we just brought in? Sure, they're thieves...but they're pretty hot. I wouldn't mind signing up to help that Akanishi guy with his rehabilitation, me being a model of good influence and all."

"Impossible." Kame waved a can at her and wondered when he'd finished it. "He wouldn't be interested in you at all. And by the time I'm done with him, he's not going to be interested in *anything* for a long time to come."

"Oh?" Aya put the finishing touches on her left eye and aimed the black kohl pencil at Kame. "Kamenashi's going to question him?"

"Yes, he is." Kame had just decided this. "And get him to sign - in blood - that it's all his fault."

"What is?"

Kame couldn't remember. "Everything."

Aya giggled. "Ooh, sounds serious. You must have a real grudge against this guy, huh?"

"I..." Kame struggled to find the words. They were there, dancing a teasing little number at the very edge of his brain, but they were coy, refusing to let him near. "I don't..."

She wasn't listening anyway. "Then you need to make an impression. He got a bit roughed up on the way in, so it shouldn't be too hard. We just need to make you look intimidating. Stay still a sec."

Before Kame could pull his sluggish self together for a protest, Aya's hands were hovering over his face, carefully ringing his eyes with solid black. He froze, hoping to avoid receiving a pencil in the eye, and ended up having a faint smear of blue eyeshadow across his lids. He backed away before Aya could fish out a lipstick; when she held up her pocket mirror, Kame had to admit that he didn't look too bad. The LIPS uniform was mostly black; Kame, like the others, wore the jacket open to reveal the black and white shirt underneath and rolled the sleeves up when he didn't need to be formal. It was an effective combination.

"Interesting look you got going there, rookie."

Kame whirled round to find Ishida and Carl leaning on the wall behind him, giving each other amused grins.

"You want to question Akanishi, huh?" Ishida continued. "What do you think, Carl? Should we let the baby bird spread his wings?"

Carl was nearly killing himself trying to hold back his laughter. "Sure, why not? Gustav says he's ready for visitors."

"Then," Ishida put a hand on Kame's shoulder, "I think it's time for you to demonstrate your amazing interrogation techniques...like you used on that pilot the other day. Let's go, Kamenashi. We're right behind you."

Ishida didn't let go of Kame until they arrived at Interrogation Room #3; Kame was actually grateful for this since he was having trouble persuading his legs to walk in the right direction. His steps seemed to go everywhere but where he wanted them.

"We'll be right next door, watching over you like guardian angels," Ishida promised, pointing at the room one along. Kame knew there was a one-way mirror - he was going to have an audience. Not an ideal situation, but he didn't have a choice, and besides, here was his chance to show the rest of his unit just what a take-charge kind of guy he really was.

He nodded at Ishida, drew himself up to his full height - not that this was saying much - and tottered unsteadily into the room. The door slid shut behind him, the auto-lock activating with an ominous 'click' in the silence. Through heavy-lidded eyes, Kame got his first proper look at Akanishi Jin.

Dark brown hair, so tidy over the comm, now mussed and damp with sweat. Light skin with an unhealthy green tinge, caused, no doubt, by the same rough treatment that had garnered him the cut on his cheek and the red patch on his jaw. There were rips in his dark grey shirt where someone's fingers had made a fist, tearing the cloth with sharp nails, and the sleeves of his black jacket were pushed up to his elbows to let the ropes cut directly into his skin where he was tied to the arms of the chair. His boots were lined up neatly against the far wall, leaving his sock-clad feet dangling just above the floor where the chair, designed to make the occupant uncomfortable, was slightly too high to allow him to reach it. Though his legs were unbound, there was a great gash in his black pants, revealing a line of bloodied flesh along his right thigh.

Kame took a deep breath; Akanishi's eyes were closed and he didn't appear to have noticed that he was no longer alone in the room. Fine, Kame would have to startle him. He released the breath silently and stepped forward, his footfalls deliberately heavy.

"Akanishi?" Somehow his statement twisted in his throat, coming out as a question instead.

Akanishi's eyes snapped open, suddenly alert; his mouth fell open with considerably less elegance. "K-Kamenashi?" he stuttered.

\-----

Jin vowed never to trust to his luck again, because he obviously had a lot and it was all _bad_. It was entirely his fault they were there. His fault that the Yunaka had been dragged in by that same damned LIPS cruiser, his fault that they'd been boarded and arrested. His fault for stowing away in the first place, for running away from home - again - and making his problems someone else's.

They'd been handcuffed and herded, he, Koki and Nakamaru, onto the Murasaki, and one of the LIPS officers - Ishida, he thought from the voice - had gone into the Yunaka's cargo hold. He'd gone in with a scowl but emerged with a smile. Then he'd taken a fistful of Jin's shirt and hauled him into a deserted corridor, where he'd proceeded to blast him with questions about some diamond that Jin didn't know anything about. When Jin tried to explain that he hadn't been in on the jewellery robberies, Ishida had shoved him into a bulkhead, where the sharp edge had made a nice slice in his thigh. Ishida didn't care, so long as Jin wasn't about to bleed to death in the next ten seconds, and Jin was grateful when a female officer came out and said they'd docked at Kurogin orbital prison.

The LIPS personnel had taken a DNA swab, of course - just to make sure he really was who he said he was - and Jin's spotless record had come up. He wasn't innocent, by any means, but he certainly wasn't guilty of robbing jewellery stores. That had been Koki and Nakamaru.

But damned if Jin was going to be the one to admit to it.

"Kamenashi?" Jin repeated. After processing he'd been thrown in a holding cell by himself, then dragged out five minutes later by some giggling lunatic only to be tied to an old mahogany chair in an interrogation room. It wasn't the warmest welcome he'd ever had, and now he was being confronted by the guy who'd turned a tractor beam on him. And he was looking kind of...out of it. "Uh...Officer Kamenashi? Are you...?"

"I'll ask the questions," Kamenashi snapped. He sauntered towards Jin, his movements those of a man trying desperately to prove he was stone-cold sober, and Jin had to look twice to make sure he wasn't seeing things. Kamenashi hadn't been wearing make-up earlier, had he?

Not that it didn't suit him, those smudged black and blue eyes; a louche, wasted look, accentuated by the rumpled jacket and rolled-up sleeves.

"You always go to work in eyeliner?" Jin blurted out.

The LIPS officer gave him a crooked smile. "I'm off the clock, and this," he waved his hand broadly round the room, almost overbalancing in the process, "is off the record. So we'll talk for as long as I want, about whatever I want, and if you give me the right answers I might choose to believe that lily-white record of yours and let you go."

Jin didn't know whether to believe him or not. There was definitely something weird about Kamenashi. Okay, so he'd only seen the guy for the grand total of a couple of minutes over the comm, and heard him once before that, but the person he'd talked to hadn't overenunciated his words to keep from slurring. Could Kamenashi be drunk?

\-----

Though he couldn't possibly have known this, Kame was wondering the same thing. It was the only explanation he could come up with for the way he felt...not that thinking was such an easy process right now. He was too hot; his brain was overheating.

He shook his head to try to clear it, and suddenly there were two Akanishis looking up at him, wide-eyed and confused. The one on the left was marginally better-looking, Kame decided. He blinked and the two figures merged.

Time to get down to business...before he fell down. "Is it just the three of you in the gang or are there others?" he asked.

"We're not in a gang. We're performers! You heard us yourself - you even joined in."

Kame shuddered at the laughter he knew would be coming from behind the mirror. "And I suppose all that jewellery back there was part of your stage costumes?"

"I don't have anything to do with that!" Akanishi protested, wincing when he tried to raise his hands for emphasis. "You don't have to tie me up, you know. I'm not dangerous!"

"Not dangerous? You know the problems you caused me?"

Kame continued his approach, sweat dampening his closed fists, a sickening shakiness in his stride. The table was behind him; there was nothing to use for balance now, not until he reached Akanishi's chair and set one hand down on the reassuring curve of its high back. The dark red wood was smooth under his touch, providing firm support for his fingers that passed to the rest of his body; it was calming, like pressing against a column of cool white marble.

"What...?" Akanishi twisted round, trying to follow Kame's face, causing the tips of his messy brown curls to skim lightly over Kame's skin. The soft hair, the hard wood...

He ignored Akanishi's confusion, instead following the line of the furniture down the back and along the arms with his eyes, ending with Akanishi's bound wrists. They were red where he'd rubbed against the restraints, but not yet bleeding. Not like the wound on his thigh.

Kame frowned. Though Akanishi's pants were black, and therefore not the easiest to check for bloodstains, they looked suspiciously damp around the rent. He reached down with his free hand, carefully pushing the fabric aside to inspect the injury. The wound was still bleeding; it didn't appear life-threatening but it must have been painful, and Kame didn't want to think about what kind of infections one could pick up in a prison.

He'd be remiss in his duties if he didn't at least stop the bleeding. Akanishi was in no position to help himself, after all. Kame staggered over to the locker in the corner to find the emergency first aid kit, made it all the way back to the chair without crashing face-first to the floor and considered this to be an impressive achievement.

He had to get down on the floor anyway to administer first aid, so he knelt slowly, deliberately, making sure everyone watching knew he'd done so under his own power.

"What are you doing?" Akanishi asked, sounding suspicious. "Is this some sort of experimental interrogation technique?"

"Just shut up and take your pants off."

"Um..."

"Oh. Right." Kame sighed and reached for the other man's belt, fumbling slightly with the heavy buckle. It wasn't that his fingers were numb - far from it. They felt hypersensitive, every touch magnified, sensation spreading from fingertip to palm and interfering with his nerves. It made him clumsy, made him careless. He ripped Akanishi's belt away, tossing it behind him, then set to work on the pants.

Easier said than done. Akanishi couldn't reach the floor, meaning he couldn't lift himself up, and the chair arms, though sturdy, were too slender for him to try with those. Kame was forced to work the torn black pants down over Akanishi's hips and underneath him, inch by slow inch, hands caught between the warmed wood and scorching flesh. He was close enough to hear Akanishi's breath quicken, becoming short gasps, and to watch fine tremors begin in his legs.

"Hold still," Kame mumbled, as though Akanishi had a choice in the matter. "I can't fix you up through your clothes, that's all."

"I know that!"

Kame rooted around in the first aid kit till he found what he was looking for: an all-in-one antiseptic, bandage and sim-skin package. He wiped the area clean first so he could see the actual cut, then squeezed the pack over it, wringing out every last drop of liquid until the mixture sealed the wound, forming a flesh-coloured bandage in the gash. The process was slow; Kame's eyes and left hand remained fixed on Akanishi's thigh but his right hand rested on the seat, in the gap between Akanishi's spread legs.

It was so beautiful, Kame thought, sneaking a peak at it. The dark red grains lay neat and smooth, faintly warm to the touch where Akanishi's weight had rested; colour so rich and full that Kame could lose himself in it. He stroked the wood once, experimentally, loving the feel of it under his fingers, and ran his thumb along the curve of the seat until he encountered an obstacle: Akanishi's bare leg.

That, too, felt nice.

Akanishi flinched, and Kame looked up to see him biting down on his lip. "You okay?" he asked, not that he really cared. "The bandage should stop stinging soon."

"Forget the bandage!" Akanishi lowered his voice, aiming it down to where Kame's head was still poised between his legs. "What the hell are you doing? Trying to molest me or something? Is that what you guys do, you kidnap innocent people and drag them back here for a little fun before you make them disappear for good?"

Kame glared at him. "You think I can't get any without resorting to kidnapping, Akanishi?"

"I didn't say that, did- oh." If Akanishi's voice had been uncertain before, it was well and truly incredulous now that he'd seen Kame caressing the furniture. "You're...you're groping a chair. I don't believe this."

"I am *not* groping a chair. I am merely appreciating the skill of its maker."

But Kame's actions belied his words. He ran his fingers along the rim of the seat, skimming lightly over Akanishi's leg and continuing round the side, brushing up against one trembling hip in the process. Since he couldn't reach all the way round, he reversed his path, lingering when he found a small nick in the wood. He pressed it with his nail, wondering if some past felon had scored it to mark time. It didn't spoil the chair's beauty, this tiny imperfection, simply served to accentuate the graceful curves.

"You're seriously weird."

"And you're shivering," Kame said absently.

Akanishi snorted. "The vents are going full blast and I'm sitting here nearly naked from the waist down. That's not thermal underwear, you know - of course I'm shivering!"

"It's too much trouble to get your pants back on, and besides, they're already ruined. You'll get a change later."

Kame's words were still slurred, and he didn't like it. The longer he stayed there, the more tired he felt, dizziness making his head spin a spiral of stars. Akanishi had the nice, sturdy chair to rest on, didn't he? What did Kame have? Didn't *he* deserve to rest too? He'd brought in three jewellery thieves tonight, and that had to count for something.

Akanishi laughed nervously. "So there is going to be a 'later', then? You're not going to kill me?"

"How can I make your life a misery if you're dead?" Kame mumbled as he laid his head down on Akanishi's uninjured thigh, causing the other man to squawk loudly.

Kame's resting place was warm, despite Akanishi's claims of being cold, and Kame switched hands so that his right gripped the chair where seat met back, arm pressed against bare skin, and the left splayed flat on the seat, forcing Akanishi's legs even further apart. It wasn't the most comfortable position in the world, but to Kame it was blessed relief.

\-----

Jin was pretty sure, by this point, that Kamenashi was on something. On a lot of somethings, probably, though he couldn't think of anything offhand that produced the desire to molest furniture. He couldn't imagine there would be much of a market for that.

He'd been surprised when the LIPS officer treated his injury, and even more so when he'd lain his head on Jin's thigh, but the thing that really knocked him back was when Kamenashi began stroking the seat in earnest, smiling weirdly to himself and completely ignoring the fact that _he was driving Jin crazy_. Jin's legs were driven further apart - he couldn't kick Kamenashi now if he'd wanted to - and Kamenashi's fingers rushed to reclaim the space, greedy for more.

"Hey," Jin said shakily, "don't treat an injured man like this."

"Not my fault you're injured." Kamenashi's words were muffled - lazy, like he was only bothering to use half his mouth - and Jin could feel them against his thigh, puffs of air ghosting over bare skin. "What'd you do to annoy Ishida? 'Side from existing, of course."

Ah, maybe if Jin could get a conversation going, Kamenashi would start acting sane. Or at least stop tickling Jin's inner thighs as he caressed the chair. "I told him I didn't know anything about any diamond," he murmured, not wanting any possible recording devices to pick it up. He didn't fancy getting kicked around by Ishida again, and from what he'd heard, Kamenashi didn't sound any too fond of the man either.

"Diamond?"

"Yeah. He wanted..." The scrapes on Jin's chest from Ishida's knuckles blazed raw as he struggled to remember. "A flawed diamond. He insisted we had it on board the Yunaka. I said I didn't know what we had back there, and things got ugly."

"Did it have a name?"

The urgency in Kamenashi's voice startled him. "Yeah. Something like...no, that was... Ah, Kizuna. That was it. Was it a family heirloom or something, is that why he's so mad about it?"

He didn't expect Kamenashi to start laughing. He didn't sound happy, though - strained and bitter, more than anything else, rasping and gasping for a long minute. "It's not his, and it's none of your business why he wants it."

"Is it your business?" Jin whispered.

"Yeah." Kamenashi's fingertips trailed along the grain, following a particular stretch of burnt red until they encountered something other than mahogany. By this time, the chair wasn't the only thing hard to the touch. Jin didn't want to admit it, but being touched like that, even if it was by a complete lunatic with a chair fetish, was making him stir.

To be fair, it wasn't as though he was desperate. Just because he and Yamapi hadn't done much of anything in the last couple of years didn't mean Jin had been a stone statue. But those few encounters had been temporary measures of relief at best, nothing lasting, and never with anyone as attractive as Kamenashi, drugged-up and strung-out though he was.

Kamenashi's head slid off Jin's leg till his chin rested on the very edge of the chair; he tilted forwards and for a moment, Jin could see nothing but reddish-brown hair with darker roots, occasional wild spikes at odd angles. Kamenashi's breath wafted gently between Jin's thighs, raising the temperature even further, and Jin held his own breath in response, waiting to see what the LIPS officer would do next.

But when he saw Kamenashi's tongue dart out and _lick the chair_ , he lost it.

"You're a freak!"

"And you're a liar," Kamenashi said casually, as though he hadn't just been witnessed giving some tongue action to a piece of furniture. "They're cataloguing the contents of your cargo hold right now. The Kizuna will turn up sooner or later."

"But I really don't know what's in there!" Jin pleaded. "I didn't have anything to do with the thefts."

"Give me one good reason why I should trust you."

Jin gave up when he felt Kamenashi begin afresh, both hands this time, pushing between his skin and the seat beneath. "Do I look like I could lie to you like this?"

\-----

Kame raised his head, took a good look at Akanishi's face, and decided that the other man was probably telling him the truth. He was flushed, sweating just as much as Kame himself; his words were more moaned than spoken. He couldn't have hidden a lie: not in the shivers of his skin, not in the catch of his breath.

"You want me." Kame made it a statement, not a question.

"Yes." Another moan as Kame let his fingers meander closer to full black briefs, keeping himself between Akanishi and the observers behind the mirror.

Not that Kame expected it to do much good - Ishida, Carl and the others had doubtless already split their sides laughing, and Kame would be shown the door the moment he walked out of the interrogation room. Seducing a suspect was a perfectly legitimate tactic, but he no longer believed Akanishi to be guilty of anything other than a little stupidity and a lot of bad luck, some of which had unfortunately made the transfer to Kame during the holoship incident.

Besides, it was hardly "seduction", even if Akanishi didn't have any objections.

Kame couldn't persuade his mind to get back to work. Ishida obviously hadn't found the Kizuna, assuming it really was on the Yunaka, but he must've seen something there to give him the idea. Goods from the same jewellery store, maybe. It would show up during cataloguing, or Ishida would take it before then - whichever it was, Kame had to prevent it. Or better yet, catch Ishida in the act.

But thoughts like these, of the kind that would get him back into the captain's good graces, strained a tired brain that only wanted to rest, and to feel good, and to find strength in the carved mahogany. Kame couldn't move that far, couldn't get up off the floor to drag himself back to the real world. There was only the chair standing firm and supportive under his hand, and Akanishi Jin.

He was still looking up at Akanishi, letting his hands roam without guidance, watching the other man gulp down great lungfuls of air. Confusion, resentment, frustration...and desperate need. All these were free to view on Akanishi's face. It was obvious that he could hide nothing, especially not from someone who happened to be touching him so intimately.

"Don't."

"Huh?"

"Don't," Akanishi repeated. "Don't look at me like that. I don't want to be an evening's fun for some furniture-loving freak. Even a prisoner has rights, Kamenashi, and if you're not going to play fair then get the hell away from me."

Play fair? Kame winced. When did anyone ever play fair with *him*?

"Watch your mouth, or I'll leave you just like this," he promised. "All tied up, unable to find release. I've already got what I want from you."

Namely, that Ishida was sure the Kizuna was on board the Yunaka - not what Kame had gone in there for, but right now, he'd take it. There didn't seem to be much point in yelling at Akanishi about the trouble he'd caused Kame. For one thing, that would require effort, and probably standing up, which was out of the question. For another...well, Kame wasn't the only one in a bad situation.

\-----

Jin thought he might spontaneously combust out of sheer frustration if Kamenashi walked away now. The deft, teasing fingers were still paying more attention to the chair than to him, gracing his skin with only the barest of touches, but when he whined helplessly in protest, there was a subtle shift in their movements.

"All right." Kamenashi's tone softened. "I'd hate being teased in your situation, too."

When Kamenashi leant down again, Jin thought at first that he intended to lick the chair, which wasn't nearly so responsive as a warm, breathing human being, aged twenty and frustrated as hell. Instead, he planted a gentle kiss on the inside of Jin's thigh, making him squirm even more. Jin's first impulse was impossible: to return the gesture.

"We've got an audience back there," Kamenashi murmured. "Probably laughing their heads off at us. So don't expect much. Besides, I've had too much to drink."

Trust Jin to get mixed up with a lush who drank on duty. But...Kamenashi had said he was off the clock, hadn't he?

"How much did you have to drink?" Jin whispered back. "Why were you drinking, anyway?"

"We caught the three of you," Kamenashi said. "Ishida decided it was cause for celebration. Brought you out here instead of going down to Lunacy 'cause Ishida's the ranking officer, and most of the prison officials aren't here right now. Good place to unwind and check out your cargo."

When Kamenashi said "check out your cargo", Jin caught the poorly-hidden meaning. He'd met corrupt cops before - had worked with a few, actually - and it was obvious he'd been caught by a LIPS unit who'd skipped out on their ethics training. He didn't know whether that included Kamenashi or not, though.

"How much did you have to drink?" he repeated, more firmly this time.

"Uh...only one beer. I think." Kamenashi shook his head vigorously. "No. One beer, then one coffee. I never started the second can."

Jin hissed. Either Kamenashi was a real lightweight or he'd been given something, probably in the coffee.

"What? You don't believe me? I definitely didn't start the second can. Took me ages to finish the first one."

"Kamenashi, listen to me. Did someone else give you the coffee?"

Kamenashi scowled. "Ishida. He gave it to me."

 _Probably because he saw you weren't getting plastered fast enough_ , Jin thought. "You're not drunk, Kamenashi - you're drugged."

When Kamenashi's hands stilled, Jin knew he'd struck a nerve. The muttered obscenities and cursing of Ishida's name going on between his legs was a big giveaway too. He could practically feel the waves of pain surging over him, a stormy black sea full of rage and resentment, and fierce enough that Jin thought he might drown in it. It scared him a little that he almost wouldn't have minded.

\-----

 _Ishida._

Damn it. Kame had thought the man's one-eighty turn was suspicious, and it should have been obvious. _Would have_ been obvious, if only he hadn't been too caught up in the warmth of one night's acceptance, and tired from not enough sleep, and slightly buzzed from the first beer, and...

...no. He couldn't blame any of that. It was his own fault, plain and simple. He should've been more alert. Should've trusted his instincts and *not*, under any circumstances, accepted anything from a man he knew hated his guts.

Well, the feeling was mutual.

Kame let his anger grow, starting with the small core of bitterness that had appeared the second he'd met Ishida Makoto; he felt the cleansing burn through his synapses, clearing his fogged mind. Not enough to give him total clarity - whatever drug he'd been given had too strong a hold on him for that - but it was more than sufficient for him to be stung with humiliation that Ishida had deliberately set him up for his own amusement - for _everyone's_ amusement - turning him loose on a prisoner he couldn't care less about.

There was no way to salvage the situation. Whatever happened, Kame was leaving the unit. Either he quit, or Ishida would keep up with the complaints until he was thrown out in disgrace. A transfer didn't hold much more appeal; Kame didn't think he could stand to remain with LIPS in any capacity. All his hard work, for nothing...but at least he could start again, and for the right reasons.

"Um...Kamenashi?" Akanishi ventured. "If you're about to go on a killing spree, could you move away from me first? This is a little bit..."

"It's all right. I'm not angry at *you*." Kame appreciated that growling at Akanishi wasn't going to convince him of that, but it was true. He didn't move from position, conscious that Ishida could still be watching him, not wanting to give him any reason - other than the usual - to target Kame. Best just to continue, stumble drunkenly out the door, and claim he needed to lie down for a few hours.

Which he did, truth be told, but what he needed more was to get to the Yunaka. If the Kizuna diamond was still there, Kame wanted to find it first. The trouble Ishida would get in with the Kitagawa Family, if that's who he was really working for, would be far greater than any legal punishment he'd receive for the theft.

So he really wasn't angry with Akanishi. Not anymore. And the idiot *had* helped him see things clearly. Kame owed him for that.

"It's all right," Kame repeated, trying to moderate his voice to keep the ire from it. "Just sit still."

Akanishi was so tense already that Kame knew it wouldn't take much to push him over the edge. He reached out blindly, fumbling towards swollen black cotton and palming the contents; Akanishi's strangled gasp encouraged him to play, stroking and squeezing flesh far softer and more responsive than the hardwood chair.

"I thought you had to go kill a guy?"

Kame smothered a smile at Akanishi's rough whimper, a hint that Kame should perhaps be elsewhere, delivered in a voice that begged him to remain. "Shut up. This won't take much longer."

He was right, of course. All that pent-up frustration had to be channelled somewhere; before long, Akanishi reached a shaky climax, shuddering against Kame's hand, and the tension left his body. He slumped down in his seat and with the final drawn-out moan, Kame felt himself begin to respond.

It was time to go.

Using the chair for leverage, Kame propelled himself unsteadily to his feet. He looked down at Akanishi's panting form, dazed and drained, and wondered what would happen to him now. He hadn't struggled - much - or tried to strangle Kame with his legs, or called for help, or done any of a dozen things Kame thought he might have done if their situations were reversed. Something else to be grateful for.

Kame headed for the door, trying unsuccessfully to walk in a straight line, and turned round to deliver his farewell.

"Thanks, Akanishi."


	8. Chapter 8

"Are you all right? You look feverish."

Jin looked at the other occupant of the cell, a man who'd introduced himself as Ueda Tatsuya. "Fine, thank you," he said carefully.

Ueda gave him a sceptical look but said nothing, not even when Jin threw himself down on the unoccupied bed, closed his eyes, and did his best to put Kamenashi Kazuya and his weird chair fetish out of his mind.

It would've helped enormously if Jin had been able to get up and walk out of the interrogation room the way Kamenashi had - and he'd likely have been no steadier on his feet. But after Kamenashi had disappeared, a pair of laughing LIPS officers came and brought Jin a fresh pair of pants, then ushered him into his boots and out the door, taking him to an unfamiliar cell.

Kurogin was one of the oldest orbital prisons and one of the worst maintained, which meant that the cells were not exactly glamorous. No screens, meaning they couldn't even have an artificial view, and there were old, bleached bloodstains in the corners where the cleaners had been unable to remove them. At least the beds were relatively comfortable, and now Jin's hands were free, he could finally inspect his injured leg.

He stood up, unfastening his pants.

Ueda immediately leapt to his feet. "We've only known each other five minutes, Akanishi, and I'm not that desperate."

Jin snorted. "Don't flatter yourself. I'm just checking on a cut."

He was pleased to see that the sim-skin had blended seamlessly with his own flesh, and when he gave the wound a cautious prod with his index finger, it no longer hurt. He sent a mental thank you to Kamenashi, wherever he was - Jin didn't care for pain, unless it was the kind that resulted from eating too much chocolate, or possibly overextending himself while scoring the winning goal.

"I'm not seeing anything wrong with your leg," Ueda commented, peering down at it.

Jin hastily pulled his pants back up. "Some jerk named Ishida threw me into a locker and sliced it up."

"I've met him; that doesn't surprise me." Ueda broke into a sudden grin, transforming him from a dark, mysterious figure to a ray of sunshine. "Did you see his eye?"

"You did that?" Jin marvelled, returning the smile. "Is that why you're in here?"

"I don't think it helped, but no, that's not the reason." Ueda shrugged. "It doesn't really matter now. I haven't done anything *you* need to worry about."

"Same."

Jin took Ueda's assurance at face value; for all that he looked like a bedraggled holovid vampire, he didn't appear to pose a threat. Jin could fight if he had to, but it wasn't his preferred form of interpersonal communication and especially not when he was in a confined space.

"I didn't think you had. You don't have the face for murder or any other serious crime." Ueda said. "So why are you all the way out here instead of down in Lunacy, being handed community service for aggravated littering?"

"Would you believe 'bad luck'?"

Ueda found Jin's story so entertaining that he was still laughing by the end of it - though Jin had skipped out the part where he'd been given a hand job by a drugged-up LIPS officer while tied to a chair. While he was sure that Ueda would've found it amusing, Jin intended to keep the whole bizarre experience a secret - as much as he could, given that it had been witnessed by the rest of Kamenashi's unit.

"So your ship is here?" Ueda asked when he'd recovered.

"Not *my* ship, exactly..." Jin might've been accepted into the crew but he certainly didn't have any rights over the Yunaka. "Yeah, it's still here. They're cataloguing everything in the cargo hold and looking for some diamond. Beats me why anyone would want one with a flaw in it, but-"

Ueda inhaled sharply. "Would this diamond happen to have a flaw like a pair of rings twisted together in the centre?"

"You're after it too?" Jin squeaked.

All at once a change came over Ueda; his smile disappeared, replaced by a wary, guarded expression, and his back became ramrod-straight. "Too?"

"Oh, I'm not interested in it myself." Jin didn't like the way Ueda was watching him, like he'd just upgraded Jin on his threat radar. "That Ishida guy wants it. He might even have it by now, unless he ran into Kamenashi first."

"Well, I don't know anything about any Kamenashi, but Ishida brought me out here to interrogate me about the diamond - Kizuna. I didn't have it; didn't know where it was, other than that it was stolen from a jewellery store in Japan not so long ago. That's no great secret. I don't have to tell you what his response was."

The bruises not-quite concealed by Ueda's high collar were evidence enough. "I can guess. Any idea why he wants it?"

"That, I do know. Are you familiar with the Kitagawa Family?"

Jin's first instinct was to flee, but being stuck in a cell, that option was denied him. His second was to panic, and he thought he managed that one quite well.

"I've never seen anyone turn that shade of purple before," Ueda commented, after three minutes of watching Jin gasp for air. "Either you're horribly claustrophobic or..."

"Or I know the Kitagawas," Jin finished for him once he could speak again. "I...used to work for the old man."

"I wasn't aware anyone "used to" work for him."

The implication wasn't lost on Jin. "It's been over a week; he's probably realised by now that I'm not coming back. I hope."

Ueda gave him a searching look. "You didn't do anything stupid before you went, did you?"

"Of course not," Jin scorned. "I just...left."

"And you're still alive. Take it as a positive sign."

"What about Ishida?"

"Let's just say if he doesn't manage to get hold of that diamond he's going to end up with a lot more than a black eye. He's in hock to the old man's niece for more than his soul's worth; she agreed to cancel his debt if he brought her Kizuna."

Jin felt marginally reassured by this. Ishida might have been working for the Kitagawas, but he wasn't there to kill Jin and that made the universe a brighter place to be. It didn't make him any more optimistic about his chances of getting out, though. If Ishida found the diamond and made up his mind to remove anyone who knew he wanted it, Jin and Ueda were going to be high on his list.

"We have to get out of here," Jin decided. Ueda applauded; Jin didn't think he was being serious. "I mean it. I need to get out of here, find my friends and get back to the Yunaka. I didn't leave Earth to get myself locked up in some orbital prison for the rest of my life."

"Which is liable to be quite short," Ueda observed. "Do you have room for two more onboard?"

"Two more? You and...?"

"Taguchi Junnosuke, the guy I was with when they arrested me. He's somewhere in here too."

"Ooh." Jin was intrigued. "What were you doing that they arrested you for?"

"Eating steak without a license."

"Huh?"

"Never mind." Ueda began stretching his leg muscles, cramped from sitting. "His sense of humour's kind of weird, but he doesn't deserve to get left here. It was me they were after - Taguchi just got in the way and I can't *not* try to get him out."

Understandable. Jin couldn't have left anyone in that situation either. He mentally reviewed the ship's capacity and concluded that yes, they could manage with five people, though not on a long-term basis. There were enough spacesuits and emergency oxygen for six, if necessary, and if they had to, they could squeeze that many in the two cabins.

"Yeah, we've got room. I'm sure the guys won't mind...but I want to know something. Why do *you* want the diamond?"

There was a touch of frost in Ueda's voice. "I have a buyer who's rather keen to acquire it and would rather remain anonymous. I *was* going to get Taguchi to steal it for me while it was on display in Lunacy, but your friends stole it before it even left Earth."

Tiny needles of dread pricked at Jin's thoughts - what if the others came to blows over one stupid gem? He certainly didn't want Ishida to get it, but if Ueda had a buyer ready and Koki and Nakamaru had stolen it in the first place...did they even know they had it, or was it just one of the thousands they'd appropriated on their latest spree?

Ueda read his face and grimaced. "I'm not about to claim ownership of something none of us can get to right now." Finished with his legs, he began working on his arms, looking completely at ease despite his surroundings.

He still jumped a mile when an alarm rang out, though.

As did Jin. "Please don't tell me that's a fire alarm."

"Nope." Ueda pressed his palm to a small panel above his bed, lay down, and waited. A tiny lamp flared to life; moments later, the overhead light died. "That's the warning for lights out. They're not very consistent with the times, though. This place is really badly staffed. Somebody out there has evidently decided that it's now night-time - probably the LIPS unit that brought you in, assuming they're still here."

"Oh, they'll still be here," Jin said.

"Good. That means more ships to choose from. There aren't any here normally, you know. Just some escape capsules, nothing with a hyperdrive."

"Meaning: no point in escaping 'cause you can't get away," Jin guessed.

"Right. Until now."

\-----

Jin had no idea what Ueda had done to the cell's electronic lock - probably intimidated it into giving way - but he was impressed. His own pick, along with his datband, had been confiscated during his arrest, and Ueda seemed no better equipped. He'd held his breath while the other man worked the lock, not releasing it until the door slid noiselessly aside, no alarms ringing to alert the authorities.

"Amazing!"

Ueda muttered for him to shush, so Jin repeated the compliment at a much lower volume and followed his now ex-cellmate down the empty corridor. Not for long; they were looking at the panels next to each cell, checking for familiar names.

"Yanagi, Endo, Moriyama..." Jin murmured under his breath as he went. "Ah, this one. Taguchi Junnosuke, right?"

"That's him."

Jin continued to check cells while Ueda unlocked the door, but he kept an eye from a distance and eventually concluded that Ueda's earring, which he pressed against the mechanism, was nothing so simple as mere jewellery. Ueda popped the shining silver cross back in his ear and the cell door opened.

Taguchi, much to Jin's surprise, turned out to be a familiar face, though he didn't know the name. The man was a thief, and a cheerful one at that. When Jin was sixteen, he'd walked into an arcade during a robbery. The occupants were all lying on the floor, giggling helplessly, while a lanky young man with a gun that looked like a mangled nerve disruptor made off with an antique Frogger machine. Jin was no hero, and he didn't want to play games *that* badly, so he'd hidden until the thief disappeared.

Four years down the line, Taguchi hadn't changed much - he was still taller than Jin, and it wasn't just his hair that had grown. Jin decided it was wisest not to mention where he'd seen him before.

"Sh," Ueda warned as Taguchi opened his mouth to burst into greeting. "There's usually only one guy watching the corridor surveillance, and he normally sleeps in front of the screen. You make too much noise, he'll wake up."

"How do you know this?" Jin was curious.

Ueda grinned. "I've been setting myself free, of course. I like to know the layout of a place before I try to break out of it. If there'd been any ships here before now, I'd have been long gone."

Jin's own earring, a silver fairy, now seemed woefully inadequate when compared to Ueda's. He resolved to ask the other man where he'd obtained it as soon as it was safe to relax and chat for a bit, which likely wasn't going to be until they were on the Yunaka. He had to hurry and find Koki and Nakamaru, though, or they weren't getting anywhere.

A few doors later, he found the pair of them sitting back to back in the dark, propping each other up. Nakamaru was cradling an injured wrist - not broken, but swelling nicely - and Koki's blond hair was matted with blood by his left ear. Both of them looked relieved to get out in the light, albeit a touch suspicious to find Jin in unfamiliar company.

Nobody complained when Ueda opened the door at the end of the corridor, though.

He motioned for them all to follow him. Past the booth just outside, where, as expected, a lone guard was snoring loudly in front of a dozen black screens. None of the cameras were working.

Ueda shrugged. "Told you the security's bad in this place," he muttered. "There were at least four of them working last night, though. Now...those two doors at the back lead to more cells; that one on the left, I think, goes to the prison facilities and personnel quarters but obviously I haven't been there."

"And the one on the right?" Jin asked.

"The docks. Which is where things are going to get interesting." Ueda's expression didn't change but there was a note of worry in his voice. "If they're busy looking through your hold, we're going to run into trouble soon enough."

Koki grunted. "Don't look at us - all our weapons are sitting in a locker in the Yunaka. Which will only *just* have room for you guys, by the way."

"Oi, Koki." Nakamaru gave Ueda and Taguchi an apologetic smile. "He's just annoyed because he couldn't break out of here himself. Don't think we don't appreciate the rescue." He elbowed Koki with his good arm.

"Yeah, thanks," Koki said grudgingly. "But at the rate we're picking up passengers, we should start charging!"

"We can argue about that later." Ueda cast a glance at the right-hand door. "I'd feel a lot better if we were armed. Unfortunately, the sleeping surveillance guy doesn't have anything - I know, I've checked - and I've never ventured far enough into facilities to look for weapons."

"There should be plenty around right now," Jin offered. "What with a LIPS unit being here. It shouldn't be too hard to steal a few, since they must've been drinking for hours by now."

Everyone turned to look at him. "They weren't drunk when they arrested us," Koki said suspiciously. "What makes you think they've been drinking?"

"Uh..." Jin gave them the same abbreviated version of his "interrogation" that he'd given Ueda, though he had to leave out all the interesting stuff so it didn't seem to satisfy anyone.

"Is that the same Kamenashi who sang along with us?" Nakamaru asked.

"Yeah, that's the guy. He's probably still wandering around here somewhere - or maybe he's got his hands round Ishida's neck, I don't know. He was seriously mad when he left."

"Then we definitely don't want to run into him. I can't see that a jailbreak is going to improve his temper," Ueda said.

After a brief dispute about whether or not they should take the time to look for weapons or risk going straight to the ship and getting themselves killed straightaway, it was decided that a quest for arms was the only real option. The first empty room they found was, quite conveniently, the prison laundry, so everyone changed into the plain black uniforms. It didn't make a great deal of difference to Ueda's appearance.

It was when Nakamaru jarred his wrist badly while changing that the notion of splitting up arose. Of course, five men creeping down a corridor, particularly when two of them were injured, were hardly inconspicuous. Since they would have to retrace their steps to get to the docks anyway, the sensible thing to do was to leave Nakamaru and Koki in the laundry room, where there was plenty of cover, while the others went exploring.

Ueda had to go, obviously, but he volunteered to go alone, as it was easier for one person to hide round corners than three.

Jin didn't like that idea. "I'm going with you," he said firmly. He trusted Ueda about as much as he trusted anyone he'd known less than six hours, but he felt someone had to go along to represent the Yunaka's interests. And since Nakamaru and Koki were both injured, he was the only choice.

Taguchi didn't make so much as a token protest at being left behind, and when Jin and Ueda crept back out the door, he was quietly playing word games with the others to keep their spirits up.

There were a lot more empty rooms along the way. An abandoned gymnasium, with broken and cracked equipment; a large kitchen; a dining room with trestle tables, rows of chairs, and a big sign on the wall reminding prisoners to chew their food properly, written in twelve different languages; a number of shower units and a small games room.

If Jin didn't know better, he'd think they were completely alone in the prison. There didn't seem to be anyone working there at all, other than the sleeping guard in the booth - not that he was "working", as such...

Even Ueda was uneasy about it. "We should've found someone by now," he murmured to Jin, "even if it's just a guy headed for the bathroom. I'm starting to wonder if there was an evacuation and nobody thought to wake up Sleeping Beauty back there."

Jin shuddered. The last thing he wanted was to be stuck in an orbital prison, waiting for another ship to come along so he could leave. What if there had been a hull breach somewhere and even now, their precious oxygen was slowly leaking away?

Was that... _hissing_?

He looked around frantically for the leak, but luckily it turned out to be Ueda, who was doubled over in pain, expelling air through pursed lips and looking like he was about to collapse at any moment. The cause revealed itself when Jin helped him stand up straight.

"Who leaves a snooker cue pointing out like that?" Jin wondered.

Ueda brushed blue chalk from his shirt and frowned at his inanimate assailant. "Some jerk who can't be bothered to tidy up after a game." He tucked the cue neatly in the wall rack, rubbed his stomach once more, and swept out of the games room before he could get hit by anything else.

Without his hissing, they were left with nothing but the low rumble of the prison's operational mechanisms, like the artificial gravity generator. They'd always been a constant noise in the background, but not really noticeable. Not until there were no voices talking over them; no footsteps echoing on uncarpeted floors or the inevitable human cacophony of sneezes, hiccups, coughs, gulps, and other, less polite sounds.

It might as well have been silent, and it was driving Jin _crazy_.

"I'm going first," he mumbled, and pushed past Ueda, frustrated with their slow pace and lack of success. He was desperate to find someone else out there. Even Ishida would've been a welcome sight, swaggering, suffocating arrogance and all.

He didn't find Ishida. He did, however, find a number of his colleagues, some of whom he recognised from his arrest. Ueda, when he managed to persuade Jin to step aside so that he could get through the break room door too, also saw some familiar faces.

Familiar _sleeping_ faces.

If Jin hadn't known that the score of black-clad men and women sprawled gracelessly over the tables, on chairs and even on the floor were actually members of a security force, he'd never have guessed it. Never even have suspected it. Empty beer cans lay on their sides, some tipped into overflowing ashtrays; others were stacked in a pyramid at the far end of the table, next to a burly man whose snores threatened to topple them before too much longer. Jin resisted the urge to add one final can, though only because he couldn't find an empty one that hadn't been mangled in some way.

Ueda mouthed a warning at him to be careful and began inspecting the sleeping officers, coming up with a sizeable collection of stunners but nothing more dangerous. Jin was slightly disappointed. From what Kamenashi had said - and more importantly, what he _hadn't_ said - about the relaxed ethical stance of his colleagues, Jin had been expecting a couple of blasters, at least, and maybe even a nerve disruptor.

Kamenashi. He wasn't there.

Nor was Ishida.

He tried to communicate this to Ueda by sign language, but the other man looked utterly bewildered and ignored him, tucking several stunners in his pockets, passing a few more to Jin and hiding those they didn't have room for in the bin, buried under a layer of cans and sodden napkins. Jin hoped they'd be out of there before the sleepers woke, but there was no sense in leaving them armed.

As soon as they left the break room, he turned to Ueda and whispered frantically, "Ishida must have gone to the Yunaka. He's not in there. Neither is Kamenashi."

Ueda looked relieved. "Oh, is that what you were trying to tell me?"

"Yeah. Why, what did you think I was trying to say?"

"That you wanted me to get up on the table and do a striptease. I mean, it was flattering but not really the time or the place for it."

Jin knew his cheeks must be going red, because they felt warm enough to fry an omelette on. "I wouldn't have asked *you* something like that."

His embarrassment earned him a knowing smile from Ueda. "So there *is* someone you'd ask?

"Shut up and let's go."

\-----

They were nearing the laundry room where they'd left the others, a little more confident now that they were armed and it had been established that the vast majority of the non-incarcerated occupants of the prison were all dead drunk, and therefore not much of a threat unless they were prone to sleepwalking. It meant they weren't as alert, weren't as prepared to dart past doors or suddenly retreat round corners.

So when they saw Ishida march past, one hand gripping Kamenashi's shoulder and the other holding a nerve disruptor against the back of his head, they were slow to react. Ueda moved first, yanking Jin's arm to pull them both round the corner of a supply cabinet, but Jin couldn't take his eyes off Kamenashi. The young LIPS officer was a sweat-soaked, bedraggled mess, his jacket even more rumpled than when he'd been with Jin, and there was a smear of blood by his mouth.

Yet his eyes were clear. Black kohl smudged his skin; there were faint blue streaks where sweat or tears had trickled through eyeshadow...but Kamenashi's eyes had none of the drug-induced craziness in them now, only anger - and fear.

If the two LIPS officers noticed the movement of shadows, it didn't show. They continued past the laundry room, following the path Jin and Ueda had taken earlier until they were far enough down the corridor to be out of range.

"You were going to shoot," Ueda said quietly, and Jin looked down at his hand to find he was holding a stunner, ready to fire.

"I...I thought they might see us. Better we stun them than we get our brains fried, right?" Jin laughed nervously, but it sounded fake even to his ears. He'd been going to shoot Ishida - but he hadn't fired, because Ishida's finger had been on the trigger, and if he'd been stunned, he'd have shot Kamenashi in the back of the head. He didn't deserve that. No one did. The only small mercy, if one could call it that, was that at point blank range, Kamenashi would probably have died outright, not taken his time in a slow, undignified crawl to the grave, his body a mass of disconnected nerves and electrical impulses with nowhere to go.

But that was still a possibility, and Jin couldn't...he didn't want to...there was no way he could...

"Here," he said brusquely, shoving all but two of the stunners at Ueda. "Take these to the others and go to the docks. Ishida must've come from there, and I doubt he'd have wanted witnesses around so they're probably clear. I'll meet you there soon, okay?"

"Akanishi-"

"I know, it's a stupid thing to do. I get that, I really do. But I have to try. Kamenashi wants out of here as bad as we do and I can't run away without at least trying to help him."

Sighing, Ueda accepted the weapons, knocking his fist against Jin's in a supportive gesture. "We can hold the docks, if we have to, but if you don't show up in an hour, we're coming looking for you. Got it?"

Ueda's tone told Jin it wasn't worth the effort to argue; he gave him a small smile in return. "Got it."

"Oh, and Akanishi?"

"Yeah?"

"Ishida's eyes don't match right now - try do something about that, will you?"

Ueda didn't wait to hear Jin's reply, just turned to head for the laundry room, grinning to himself.

Jin made sure the spare stunner was secure in his jacket pocket; then, the other weapon in hand, he ran after Ishida and Kamenashi.


	9. Chapter 9

Over the next three days, things didn't improve much. Kame kept quietly to himself, his back to the others as though he hoped not to be noticed; this strategy worked, for the most part, as everyone else was too busy bickering to pay attention to him.

Koki was pretending his head didn't hurt, which didn't fool anyone when he snapped at them, and spent his time complaining about how crowded it had gotten. Nakamaru was kind enough to go along with the pretense, but was too wrapped up in his own injury to make his usual peace. Ueda was constantly on the comm, trying to keep up with his network of contacts so the Yunaka could avoid trouble, and Taguchi...misread the atmosphere completely and suggested going to Saturn for the upcoming billiards tournament.

As for Jin, his worries could be summed up thus: they were running out of supplies (the Yunaka was too old to be equipped with a replicator), they still hadn't managed to find the diamond (had Ishida taken it after all?), and...

 _Kame._

It all came down to Kame, in the end, because food was important and survival was important and neither of them meant a damn if he couldn't figure out what to do about Kame. Koki had asked him several times why he'd gone back for the disgraced LIPS officer, why he'd felt the need to save him and bring him aboard, and Jin hadn't been able to answer him. It was an honest response, at least, because he really didn't know.

Was it enough of a reason that Jin couldn't have walked away, knowing he'd be leaving a man to certain death? If he said that he wanted Kame to owe him one, that he got a kick out of holding someone else's life in his hands, would anyone believe him? The first reason was true, the second was nonsense, but neither was an answer.

Jin couldn't quite put his finger on it. He hadn't fallen madly in love with Kame at first sight, hadn't swooned at that sweet rasp of a singing voice, hadn't misread a tractor beam as a sign of affection and certainly didn't think that Kame's drug-induced touch was an indication that the other man felt anything for him. No matter what Yamapi thought, Jin wasn't *that* delusional.

Not delusional, but fanciful, perhaps? There was something that caught Jin's attention, made him look twice. Brown eyes desperate and determined, shadowed in black and blue; eyes of a child seeking strength to become a man. Hands that were gentle without reason, healing, caressing; care given without desert. Kame had been half out of his mind when he'd been sent in to interrogate Jin and despite the accusations, the threats and the insults, he hadn't hurt him. Hadn't even tried.

It wasn't a particularly solid basis for a friendship, much less something more. Jin tried to run interference between Kame and the others, but their relationships were equally shaky. To be sure, Koki and Nakamaru were close friends, and they were slowly accepting Jin into the crew. Ueda seemed to have some sort of fondness for Taguchi, though Jin had given up trying to understand why, and thanks to Nakamaru's easy kindness, they, too, were less like strangers than Kame.

But it was difficult to get to know Kame when he barely spoke unless spoken to, and Jin was getting sick of conversations dying after a couple of exchanges.

"Let's go search for Kizuna," he suggested.

Kame looked up from the datapad Nakamaru had lent him. "The diamond?"

"Unless you think we're going to find bonds in the cargo hold, yeah. Come on, it's got to be back there somewhere. Besides," Jin grabbed Kame by the arm, forcing him to drop the datapad, "you won't talk to me and the others keep telling me to get out of the cockpit because apparently I'm getting in the way. I'm going to go crazy if I don't do something!"

"I'll hold you to that," Kame muttered, but he allowed himself to be led to the hold, where he proceeded to arrange all the stolen jewellery neatly by type, then by carat, then by stone.

"You're a lot more organised than I expected," Jin said. His contributions so far had been mostly opening boxes and bags when instructed to do so by Kame.

Kame flicked a chunky gold chain at him. "It's the only way we're going to find anything in this mess. Anyway, how do they expect to sell this lot if they don't know what they've got?"

It surprised Jin to hear a LIPS officer, even a former one, talking so casually about selling stolen goods. "Didn't know you'd be interested in that."

"I'm not an idiot, Jin, and I'm not deaf either. Taguchi's broke, Ueda refuses to talk about his financial situation which means he's probably not much better off, and the other two don't have anything except what's in here with us. I can't get to my savings - I sent most of my pay to my family, anyway - and I don't suppose you brought much with you when you ran away from Kitagawa?"

"Not much," Jin admitted. If he'd had more time to plan, perhaps he'd have been better off, but he didn't have a great deal of hard currency on him and if he used his bank account he could be traced.

Being right didn't improve Kame's mood. "Then if we want to resupply - and we're going to have to, soon - we need to do something about all this jewellery. We're hanging around in limbo and if we stay here too much longer, someone's going to come along and pick us off."

Cheery thought. "The buyer we were going to meet when you caught us fell through, so I think Ueda's looking for alternatives. It's not easy keeping a low profile when there's an APB out for the ship."

That didn't surprise Kame in the slightest. He'd been expecting Ishida to claim that his crazed subordinate, Kamenashi Kazuya, had, in a fit of jealousy, started a riot in the prison and taken up with the prisoners, leaving Ishida for dead. "What do they want us for? Attempted murder, perhaps?"

"Kidnapping you."

Kame dropped the pearl necklace he was holding. "Say that again?"

"Kidnapping you." Jin couldn't suppress a giggle. "Ishida's claiming that a bunch of prisoners escaped, stunned an entire LIPS unit, captured you and then left him unconscious in the shower when he tried to rescue you. According to the gossip Ueda keeps getting, Ishida's vowed to get his precious junior officer back, no matter how long it takes, and your old unit is going to track you down personally."

Kame snorted. "How very noble of him. He just wants to find me so he can make sure I don't talk - and since you were with me, you're next on the hit list. He'll probably come up with some excuse to destroy the entire ship, just to be on the safe side."

Despite Kame's irreverent tone, Jin's blood ran cold. The Yunaka's shield generators were too old and worn to hold out against a concentrated attack, and if they were fired upon by someone with a serious reason to kill, they wouldn't last long.

"We have to leave the ship," he said slowly. "We're too obvious like this. It'll put everyone in danger if we stay."

"The entire ship's obvious," Kame pointed out. "We'd all have to leave. The only way out of this is discrediting Ishida and proving you didn't kidnap me."

"But if we go public we'll get arrested anyway!" Jin waved at the neatly arranged piles of jewellery. "Your unit knows about all this."

"They do, but..." Kame grinned at him. "That information was never recorded. I checked. They didn't want any evidence logged before they could help themselves; the only charge being brought against the Yunaka was for firing a weapon in a secure zone.

"And they can't change their minds now. If Ishida's claiming they were all stunned, they're covering up the fact that they were all blind drunk - possibly even drugged - and that what they planned to do was illegal in the first place. They can't afford to have anyone show up with a different story - which means I'm a dead man."

For a dead man, Kame seemed quite cheerful, Jin thought. He kept talking as he continued his search for the diamond.

"The weapons discharge'll get you a fine, Ueda's got a fortune in unpaid parking tickets - which are all fake, anyway - and Taguchi got thrown in for brawling. None of you are likely to get the death penalty for that. Kidnapping a LIPS officer, though..."

Jin groaned. "They'll just keep chasing us, then, and with public support unless we can prove we didn't kidnap you. But if you try to tell the truth, Ishida'll say we brainwashed you or something, or that I stole you away to satisfy my own twisted desires and you were unable to resist my good looks and charm."

Kame's laughter - the real thing, not harsh, sardonic bites - was a full-body experience, involving hops, claps and the occasional joyful whoop. Jin wasn't sure whether to take offense or not, but he figured that even if he was being insulted, it was worth it.

"Not that your good looks and charm aren't irresistible," Kame said once he recovered his breath, "but I think we'll have a better chance with *this*."

A small velvet box lay open on his palm. Inside... _Kizuna_.

"It really does look like there are rings in the centre. Tiny ones." Jin had a gift for stating the obvious. The two circles were roughly the same size, entwined at an angle so that they formed a pair of butterfly wings rather than a figure-of-eight. "When did you find that?"

"While you were bragging about how I'd be unable to resist your good looks and charm."

"I wasn't bragging!"

Kame reached out and ruffled the tips of Jin's hair. "True. It's not bragging if it's the truth."

"K-Kame?"

Bad idea. Definitely a bad idea. Kame had relaxed, had allowed himself to get comfortable around Jin, and that wasn't wise for anyone with a target painted on his back. "Good looks and charm" didn't cover it.

It wasn't that Jin was perfect, because he wasn't. Since that first conversation over the comm, Kame had learned that Jin was a little clumsy, not a candidate for the Milky Way MENSA by any means, and could be quite scathing when he wanted to be - if his mocking of Taguchi, in particular, was any indication.

He was also sweet, protective of his friends, and keen to make people smile. There *was* a charm about Akanishi Jin, though Kame couldn't have named it. Couldn't have described it. Couldn't have told anyone how good it felt to hear Jin confess that he'd gone back to help Kame, knowing full well that he might die - or get horribly lost - in the process. Kame knew he hadn't done anything worthy of such a reckless act.

He also knew he hadn't done anything worthy of the look Jin was giving him right now - curious and hesitant and worried and...hopeful?

"Kame? You all right?"

Kame snapped the jewellery box shut. "I should go tell the others," he mumbled, turning towards the door.

Jin caught his wrist, clamping down hard over the slim, silver datband. "Just...wait a second, will you?"

"What for?" Kame demanded to know.

"Uh...shouldn't we make sure it's the right stone first?" The look Kame gave him made Jin wish he hadn't opened his mouth. "Of course, you're right, how many other diamonds are there with rings in the middle?"

"It's usually the other way round," Kame said. "Are you going to let go of me or do I have to drag you all the way back to the cockpit?"

That was no good. Jin couldn't talk to Kame in the cockpit. He didn't know exactly what he wanted to say, mind you, only that he couldn't have said it in front of the others. The cargo hold, with its dim lighting and silent stacks of crates, was far better suited to private conversation. Inanimate objects couldn't eavesdrop and use it against you afterwards.

"There's no way you could drag me back," Jin said smugly. "Not a skinny little thing like you."

"You're *that* heavy, are you?" Kame raked Jin up and down with his eyes and shook his head. "I don't think so. Even if you do eat more pasta than anyone I've ever met."

He tried to yank his arm free; Jin's grip tightened until the datband cut cruelly into their flesh. Kame's other hand shot out to pry Jin's fingers free and that's when they both heard Ishida's voice, muffled but unmistakeably his.

 _"You know that's not gonna work without the code, Kamenashi._

"What the..." Jin released his hold on Kame.

Kame looked around frantically. "Ishida?"

 _"Or this. I took it off Akanishi earlier. He's not as innocent as his record makes out, you know - not if he's carrying this around."_

"Ah!" Kame clapped his hand to his mouth. "Your lock pick. He said this in the shower! So why..."

They both looked at Kame's datband, where a small green light was flashing to indicate playback mode. Kame had left the band switched off since leaving the prison, in the unlikely event that they ever got within range of someone he knew; Jin's clumsy grip on his wrist had switched it back on.

"You were recording him?"

Kame pressed pause. "Not intentionally. I must've switched to record mode when I was struggling against the cuffs."

They listened to the rest of it - the recording ended with the sound of Jin fumbling with the cuffs, presumably pressing stop in the process. It was more than enough to nail Ishida.

Except...Kame wasn't sure he could present it as evidence.

Jin didn't seem to notice anything wrong, babbling on excitedly about how all they had to do was take Kame back to Lunacy and play the recording for his boss, and he was sure that everything would be sorted in no time, especially if Kame really was, as Ishida claimed, the captain's pet.

Kame wasn't nearly so optimistic. "Jin, were you even listening to that?"

"Of course I was. Ishida admitted he's in debt to the Kitagawas, and he was quite clearly attacking you. No one would believe he's innocent after that."

"Yeah, but...that "interrogation". He mentioned that, too." Kame opened the velvet box again and stared at the diamond till the rings began to blur. "About that...I'm sorry. I should've said it days ago, but I'm sorry. I wasn't..."

Jin shrugged. "The chair thing kind of threw me, but I suppose as kinks go, it's not that bad."

"I wasn't talking about the chair - which, by the way, is not my usual preference!"

At least, it hadn't been, but there was an old, overstuffed armchair bolted to the floor of Koki's cabin, one that seemed to invite Kame to run his nails along the ragged seams of the cushions, and press his fingers hard against the arms to feel the sturdy frame beneath the fabric. After a minute of wrestling with temptation he'd walked out, breathing hard, and vowed never to peek in Koki's cabin again.

But there was, he hoped, no need to inform Jin that Ishida's attempt to set him up for humiliation had had unexpected side effects. Besides, chairs couldn't talk.

"Shame, because I know a really cute couch who's just your type..." Jin teased.

That got Kame to stop staring at the diamond and actually look at Jin. It was hard to tell under the hold lights, but he seemed a little flushed.

"Look, Kame, I'm...I'm not good at talking about this sort of stuff, okay?" He chewed on his lower lip for a moment; Kame gave him the silence. "Yeah, you kind of freaked me out. But I could've kicked you, or overbalanced the chair, or _something_ , and I didn't. You didn't do anything to me that I didn't want, so stop beating yourself up about it. You could've treated me a lot worse, could've let me keep bleeding - you were so doped up you could've done anything. But," Jin swallowed hard, "I think your situation was even worse than mine."

The last thing Kame wanted was pity. He muttered something about making a copy of the recording for security purposes, and slipped away before Jin could stop him.

\-----

Responses were mixed when Kame produced Kizuna. Taguchi couldn't believe Ueda had wanted him to steal *that* instead of a pair of glorious antique Famicom controllers. Koki had appreciated the sparkle but would've preferred it set in a chain - it wasn't one he'd stolen intentionally, merely swiped on one of their many raids. Nakamaru thought it was quite lovely, though had no particular attachment to it.

Ueda's attachment was purely financial. "You want to discredit Ishida, correct?"

Kame wasn't certain. "I thought that would be enough, but if he's coming after us..."

"You can forget discrediting him." Ueda looked Kame straight in the eye. "He's going to die. The moment word gets back to the Kitagawas that he doesn't have Kizuna for them, they'll close in, and you won't have to worry about him talking."

Jin understood that better than any of them. "But he's the only one who knows we've got it, and he's certainly not going to tell anyone."

Ueda hit a button and brought up a starchart, showing their current course. "He won't have to. I've managed to make contact with my original buyer, a member of the Watanabe Clan; he's interested in a few other items too but he'll be particularly pleased to get hold of this diamond."

Now Jin understood why Ueda hadn't revealed his buyer earlier, when they were locked up together. He had to be certain Jin was no longer working for old man Kitagawa - there was no love lost between him and the Watanabe Clan, and when one side got something the other wanted, they flaunted it for all they were worth. Within seconds of the sale, the Kitagawas would know that Kizuna was out of their reach...and that Ishida was a dead man.

"We resupply and split the rest six ways, right?" Jin was very concerned about the money.

Everyone agreed to this, especially the part about resupplying as they'd somehow managed to run out of coffee.

"It was the good stuff too," Koki mourned.

"Cheer up - Deimos is known for its coffee," Nakamaru said.

As a manufacturing moon supplying the Martian shipyards with parts, Deimos was known for a lot of things - coffee included. But the JE Fleet had a constant military presence around the inner planets of the Sol System, which meant that security was heavier than the occupants of the Yunaka would've liked.

Nakamaru considered the situation. "I think we're going to have problems approaching Deimos," he said. "It might be better to get as close to the asteroid field as we can for cover and get your buyer to come out to us."

"He might be willing," Ueda said. "When we made the deal originally, I hadn't anticipated being in a ship wanted for kidnapping."

Nobody was actually looking at Kame, but he felt every eye in the crowded cockpit on him anyway. It wasn't his fault, damnit. "What do you want me to do, send a message out on all channels to tell the universe that I wasn't kidnapped?"

"No good, they'll just think you're part of a conspiracy and hunt you down anyway," Ueda pointed out. "At least right now, you're the innocent victim."

Kame had to elbow Jin to get him to stop laughing. "What, you don't think I'm innocent?"

They hadn't played the recording for the others, so Jin couldn't all very well explain why he had his doubts about Kame's "innocence". He had to settle for, "You kicked a man, left him unconscious in the shower and stole his nerve disruptor."

"Which was an illegal weapon anyway," Kame said. "Besides, you stunned him first."

"You should've done a lot worse than stun him, since he's causing us all this trouble," Koki grumbled. "And I owe him for my head."

"Then I'd be looking at a murder charge. I'm not sure that would help the situation." Kame might have been willing to shoot Ishida in the heat of the moment - in self-defense, maybe - but he couldn't have fired at an unconscious man. That would have been pure cowardice.

Ueda held out the diamond to Kame. "If we go ahead with this, you'll still be guilty - just not in court. We all will."

For once, Taguchi wasn't smiling, though his eyes were soft. "And you're the only one of us from the other side of the law."

"Which means you've got the most to lose." Nakamaru's contribution from the pilot's seat.

Koki, over by the weapons, was peering over the top of an enormous and wholly inappropriate pair of sunglasses. "But no pressure."

Pressure was exactly what Kame felt, though - the pressure of Jin's hand on his shoulder, offering wordless support.

Kame didn't hesitate. "Let's go see what _our_ buyer has to say."


	10. Chapter 10

There were times when all six occupants of the Yunaka were awake, but they slept in shifts, taking it in turns to man the cockpit. It wasn't so much that they trusted each other as that they had no choice. Nakamaru didn't have much faith in the autopilot anyway (it wasn't up to his skill level, he proclaimed) and with an APB out on the ship, they couldn't afford to be caught napping.

To make matters worse, the artificial gravity was even flakier than before, the generator having acquired a new dent during the LIPS invasion, and if no one was awake to kick it back into obedience, things really started to get rocky in the cabins.

Not, however, as rocky as they got when Kame and Jin were taking their first turn alone together in the cockpit, and everyone else was sound asleep.

Kame kept a close eye on the instruments; Jin paced to keep himself awake. Too bad there wasn't much room to walk. After cracking his knee against a panel for the third time, Jin decided he'd better sit down before he did any permanent damage.

"Finally," Kame said, relieved. "You were making me dizzy."

"I didn't think you were watching."

"You almost fell on me twice - it was hard not to notice."

"Oops." Jin scratched his nose and gave Kame an embarrassed smile. "Sorry about that. I think better when I move."

Kame peered closely at the radar mapper, responding to Jin without actually looking at him. "And what were you thinking about so hard that you nearly hit your head on the weapons locker?"

"Uh...the rising price of hyperdrive fuel?" Jin tried. Telling Kame he'd been thinking about _him_ wasn't an option.

"Sure, whatever." Kame didn't push.

"I mean, it's really important," Jin babbled, because if he didn't talk the conversation was going to stop and he wanted to talk to Kame - but at the same time, he didn't, because that meant talking seriously. "We need to pick up more fuel and I think that might be even more important than getting the coffee and-"

"Jin." Kame looked up from the screen. "Stop. Not that I object to you babbling, but I really don't want to hear about hyperdrive fuel. Makes me think of the last briefing I attended."

"Oh. Right." Jin scrabbled around for another topic, but it was difficult to concentrate on anything else when Kame was sitting only a foot away from him, somehow managing to look professional even in a T-shirt and sweatpants. The truth would have to do. "Actually, I was wondering what you were going to do afterwards."

"Afterwards..."

Kame hadn't wanted to think about it. He'd been good at planning, once, and he knew he was flexible enough to adapt to a change in circumstances, no matter how radical. But he hadn't counted on falling in with five guys who, for all the squabbling, temper tantrums and wildly different personalities, actually seemed to like him. Kame wasn't sure what would happen once they got the money and took care of the Ishida problem...but he harboured some small, faint hope that they might stay together.

Going back to Lunacy held very little appeal; returning to Earth, not much more. Kame hadn't forgotten why he'd joined LIPS in the first place: travel.

And Akanishi Jin made a very attractive travelling companion.

"I don't know," Kame said simply. "Depends how much money we all end up with. I suppose...you'll be staying on the Yunaka?"

Jin nodded. "I'm having fun here. We could fly anywhere!"

The excitement in Jin's voice fanned an answering spark in Kame. "Anywhere" covered a lot of ground - a lot of space, even.

"Anywhere but Earth," Jin said after reconsidering for a moment. "I'd like to give the old man time to forget my name."

"Think it's likely?"

Jin's heart skipped a beat. "Not really, but I live in hope."

"Better than living in fear." Kame's teasing tones took a turn for the tentative. "I...like it here too," he admitted. "Not so much the ship, but the people on it. None of you have any reason to like me, yet..."

It was a good thing the lights were down low, Jin thought, because he was pretty sure that his colour was high. "I don't know why anyone *wouldn't* like you," he mumbled.

"Aside from locking you in a tractor beam, getting you arrested and throwing myself at you in an interrogation room?"

"All right, so it wasn't an ideal location..."

Kame gave him a sidelong glance, and said carefully, "Are you suggesting somewhere else?"

A small, usually-silent part of Jin wanted to respond with, "No, you chair-loving lunatic!", but most of him was busy trying to come up with some sort of inoffensive response that wouldn't earn him a black eye. The remainder was of the opinion that grievous bodily harm was an acceptable risk, and that he should just jump Kame in the pilot's chair.

When Jin's face went completely blank, Kame wondered if he'd been misreading the situation. On such a small ship, keeping secrets was difficult and when Nakamaru had overheard Kame making a copy of the recording using the comm, everyone had found out exactly what had happened at the prison. Kame didn't think it was a coincidence that he and Jin had been asked to take watch together. Ueda, who'd made the request, had smiled sunnily at him and told him he'd better sort out his issues with Jin because the Yunaka wasn't big enough to deal with the tension.

Kame had tried to tell him that it wasn't that easy, that he didn't know how to apologise. Ueda's reply had given him a whole new set of problems to deal with.

 _"I think he's heard enough of your apologies - why don't you try talking to him about something else? It's obvious he's not holding a grudge. Quite the contrary, in fact."_

That Jin clearly didn't hold him responsible for his actions helped to explain why he hadn't been lynched yet, though it didn't give Kame any indication as to what the other man really wanted. A hasty rendezvous in the cargo hold? A delightful dinner date on Deimos? A declaration of undying love?

The best way to get information out of Jin was to ask him, but since he hadn't replied...

"Sorry," Kame said awkwardly after three minutes had passed and Jin still hadn't responded, "I shouldn't have made assumptions."

Jin's impulses were still fighting it out. When he knew what he wanted, he went after it, full speed ahead; when he was confused, he found it hard to make decisions. And Kame confused him. A lot.

"What were you assuming?" he asked.

Kame glared at him. "I was assuming that you were concerned about my future plans because you wanted to be involved in them in some way."

Jin licked his lips nervously. Twice. "Isn't there some sort of syndrome where the hostage falls for the captor?"

"There is, but I don't think it applies here, or you'd be the last person wanting to take Ishida down." Kame covered his mouth with his hand, not wanting to disturb the others, but he had to laugh at Jin's disgusted expression. "Jin, if you're trying to tell me you're attracted to me and want to go fool around without the chair and restraints, fine, but if you're saying you like me...I mean, you know next to nothing about me!"

"I know! But I want to know more!" Jin blurted out. "I want to know your favourite sport, if you have any brothers or sisters, what you wanted to be when you were a little kid-"

"Baseball, three brothers, and the number one baseball player in the Sol System," Kame interrupted. "None of which helps you much. You can't learn everything you want from me just by asking me questions."

"Then I'll skip the questions and get straight to the point."

Jin didn't plan his next move. If he had, it might've been smoother, might've been softer. Not a desperate lunge towards Kame, holding him down by the shoulders and pressing against his lips with more enthusiasm than care. Not one stupid, thoughtless - but not worthless - attempt, one moment where Jin didn't have to wonder if Kame would push him away.

Because Kame kissed him back, bruised lips and all.

"You're right," Kame said when they came up for air. "Skip the questions."

"I have one more," Jin said breathlessly. "Can we do that again?"

"Only if you promise to stop trying to knock my front teeth out."

That promise was easily given though the cockpit wasn't much of a place for making out, despite the heaps of comfortable clothing providing respite from cold metal and hard plastic. Kame, who couldn't put less than a hundred per cent of his effort into anything even resembling work, wanted to keep a close eye on the instruments. Jin, who figured they'd have plenty of warning if anyone showed up, wasn't nearly so bothered about this. The radar mapper would beep if any ships got within range - and if it was out of range, they wouldn't know about it anyway so why worry?

There wasn't really enough room for two on any of the seats, either, and the floor was too far away from the controls. Jin ended up warring with duty for Kame's attention, leaning across the armrests and the gap between their chairs when he felt too neglected - which was often. Kame had no objections.

Anything more complicated than a brief kiss was going to have to wait until later. Even then, Kame didn't count on them finding much privacy. Besides, it wasn't really a good time for romance - not when the radar mapper was making such an irritating sound...

"Jin!" Kame pulled his hand free from the other man's grasp and made a dive for the controls. "We've got company!"

Jin's gaze immediately went to the door. "They're early!"

"Not that kind of company. On the screen, look."

He followed Kame's finger, which was pointing at a small blip making its way through the asteroid field - fast. The trailing nine-character registration looked oddly familiar...

"It's the Murasaki," Kame confirmed. "Don't ask me how, but they found me."

Jin narrowly avoided slipping on a skull-print fedora on his way to wake the others, and it wasn't until he was out the door that Kame realised they could just have yelled over the intercom. Still, nothing said "panic stations!" like being dragged out of bed by a hormonal, hyperactive, headstrong young man who didn't know how to take 'no' for an answer.

Nakamaru stumbled in first, rubbing his eyes, but the moment he took Kame's place at the helm he woke up. "We can't outrun them," he said flatly. "Not here. I need more space for a jump. But they shouldn't be able to get a lock on us with the tractor beam either - too many asteroids."

"So we can't run." Taguchi sounded disappointed.

"We can't hide," Kame said. "Not for long. They know we're here."

Sure enough, the blip was headed straight for them - as straight as it could while evading asteroids, anyway.

Jin gulped and looked at Koki. "Can we fight?"

Koki shrugged. "Don't ask me that. Ask our expert here." He turned to Kame. "What are the shields like on that thing?"

Kame couldn't lie to him. "The best. A lot of people fire on LIPS ships, the shields have to be good. I don't think the Yunaka's got the firepower to break through."

"Maybe we can bargain," Ueda said. "Ishida needs that diamond, and he knows we've got it."

"Yeah, and the moment we hand it over we're all dead anyway." Jin was in no rush to get himself blown up. "We have to think of something else."

"And fast, because they're gaining on us!" Nakamaru interjected.

Kame didn't have to think about it for long. There was no other way. "I'll go. They're supposed to be rescuing me, right? So they have to at least pretend to let me aboard. I won't let them fire on you guys."

"And when your former sergeant kills you and blows us all to pieces, I'm sure your soul will rest quietly, knowing that it tried its hardest," Jin said sarcastically.

"I don't see you coming up with anything better!"

"Guys, please!" Nakamaru threw one hand in the air - the other was still in the sling - and chastised them without taking his eyes off the screen. "If you're going to argue about it, we're going to have to lock you both up in a cabin till you work it out between you."

That shut them up. Not that Kame objected to being locked in a cabin with Jin, but he thought that in the event that the Yunaka got raided, Ishida was the last person he'd want to walk in and catch him in a compromising position. And a compromising position was guaranteed - even with the sudden tension in the air, and the presence of four extra people, the effects of Jin's kisses lingered still. Good thing Kame's T-shirt was extra long.

"If we get clear, can we jump?" Kame snapped in frustration.

"Yeah, but-"

Kame cut Nakamaru off by reaching across him to flip the activation switch for the hyperdrive. "We can at least warm it up. We'll just have to come back to Deimos later."

"If there *is* a later," Nakamaru said as a truly alarming grinding noise began in the depths of the ship, and the clothes strewn on the floor began to flutter. "The gravity's going again. Can someone go do something about the generator before we all end up on the ceiling?"

Everyone looked at Koki. "Fine," he grumbled, grabbing a toolkit, "but I'll need a hand."

Ueda volunteered; the pair of them lurched out the door, anchoring themselves with the handles situated at convenient - and some, not so convenient - places along the wall. Kame, the only one left standing, clung to the back of Jin's chair as he felt his feet start to leave the ground.

Nakamaru laid it out for them, all nice and simple. "If the gravity's not working when we jump, the restraints are all we've got and that's not saying much. I don't like to admit it but," he patted the console fondly, "the Yunaka's an old girl and she won't stand up to a lot of stress. Such as, the impact of six guys hitting the wall simultaneously. It won't do us any good either."

Not for the first time, Jin spared a thought to wish he'd stowed away on someone else's ship. Someone safe, like, oh, an intergalactic warlord, or perhaps a mass murderer whose favourite targets happened to be young Japanese men.

"Worry about getting us clear first," Kame said grimly.

The Murasaki fired a warning shot. It missed, but only just. Jin double-checked the shields. The readings made him hope the other guys weren't inclined to shoot the messenger.

"Uh...we have a problem."

"It'll have to take a number." Nakamaru's one good hand was a blur as he guided the ship through the field. "Or better yet, come back next week."

"There may not be a next week," Jin said. "The shields are failing."

Kame tried to get a closer look and ended up sitting in Jin's lap; Taguchi grinned at them until a bleep from the comm made him turn round to investigate. Sure enough, the shields were in trouble.

"All the power's draining elsewhere," Kame said, frowning. "There's barely enough left in the shield generators to deflect a fast-moving pillow."

As he spoke, a small, sandalwood-scented pillow drifted past his nose. Taguchi had the good grace - just barely - to look sheepish, and snatched it back.

Nakamaru sighed. "It's not just the shields - the sub-light engines are losing power too. We're slowing down."

Kame moved to hit the intercom, to warn Ueda and Koki, but Jin intervened. "Won't that just make them panic?"

A particularly nasty hissy fit on the part of the artificial gravity generator almost shot Kame up to the ceiling; only Jin's arm about his waist kept him anchored. Seconds later, things went in the opposite direction, increasing the gravity so much that Kame couldn't have moved if he'd wanted to, pressed heavily into Jin. Jin, in turn, was getting rather better acquainted with the seat than he'd have liked.

Once Kame could exercise his muscles again, he shook his head. "I'm sure they're already panicking; I know I am. Anybody got any *good* news?"

"I don't know if this is *good* or not," Taguchi began, "but we've got an incoming message. It's from the Murasaki."

Jin thought they could probably rule that out as being good news, then. "Tell them that if they want to surrender, we accept," he said with false cockiness.

To his surprise, Taguchi did exactly that. "We're prepared to accept your surrender," he said brightly, and turned up the volume so the others could hear the response.

Ishida's menacing sneer filled the cockpit. "I don't have time to play games with low-down space scum like you. Hand over my precious subordinate and maybe I'll let you live - _if_ he's unharmed."

Kame snorted. "I wouldn't be his precious anything if he paid me. I'd rather kiss an asteroid!"

"Me and chairs aren't enough for you anymore?" Jin muttered.

Taguchi looked confused, but conveyed the message anyway. "Uh...Kamenashi would rather make an alternative lifestyle choice than come back to you."

"What do you mean, he's not the same as he used to be? If you cut anything more than his fingernails you can forget prison, you'll all be left in the nearest black hole!"

It was Jin's turn to look confused. "I don't think he's listening to us."

"Actually, I think he's the _only_ one listening to us," Kame mused. "Ishida's putting on a show for someone. He must be wearing a headset."

Jin looked at the screen, where Kame's former colleagues were clearly gaining on them. "So someone on that ship isn't in on it?"

"I can think of a handful of people," Kame said. "Ishida could just wipe the logs afterwards, claim a malfunction, and he can play the big hero all he likes. It doesn't matter what we say. Go on, Taguchi, say something to him that's completely irrelevant."

"Iriguchi, deguchi, Taguchi desu!"

Everyone else in the cockpit groaned.

"Don't think you'll get away with this!" Ishida all but screamed at him. "I want to talk to Kamenashi. Now!"

"He's not interested in anything I have to say," Kame said. "I think we're close enough now that I can try to reach one of the others by datband; just keep Ishida talking!"

As Kame and Jin retreated into the corridor, Taguchi pantomimed falling rain, shook his head, then hunched his shoulders like a turtle retreating into its shell. "Ame dame. Kame da ne!"

"It's probably a good thing only Ishida can hear that," Jin said. "Otherwise they'd have blown us up by now."

"They can't do that unless we attack first, and Taguchi's not exactly a weapon of mass destruction."

Kame considered the LIPS officers in his old unit. The number of those who weren't slavishly devoted to Ishida was very small indeed. He didn't have long to think about it. In the end, he settled on Aya, figuring that with her mouth, she'd have no trouble causing a stir.

First, though, he had to get the damned thing to work. It had taken a nasty knock against the console when the gravity had gone haywire, and he couldn't seem to switch it on.

"Give me that," Jin muttered, and he slid it over Kame's wrist without so much as a by-your-leave. "I'll have a go."

"Careful, you'll-"

There was an audible crack as something snapped off the shiny silver datband.

"-break it," Kame finished, wincing.

Jin studied the small bead. It had been stuck next to the speaker, and didn't fit any datband design Jin knew. It certainly didn't look like a legitimate component - it hadn't even been embedded in the band.

"Kame, has that always been part of your datband?"

"Of course it has!"

Jin recoiled slightly. "And when did you get it? That's a LIPS-issue one, right?"

"Right. I got it when I was assigned to Lunacy. It was given to me by..." Kame trailed off, feeling sick, and it had nothing to do with the queasiness caused by the gravity problems. "By Ishida. It looks just like all the other datbands in my unit, though. All except his. I assumed that was because he was a higher rank."

Sliding his own datband off his wrist, Jin displayed it to Kame. "I can't think what possible function it would have. I've got modifications made to mine," he pointed to the tiny pink, blue and green lights he used to flash in clubs, "and they're all embedded. Yours was just stuck on, and not very well."

He handed the bead to Kame, who only needed a moment to identify it once he looked at the underside. "Transmitter," he said darkly. "He's known my location the whole time. No wonder he was able to find us out here." He crushed it under his heel - even though it was far too late to help, it still made him feel better, imagining that it was Ishida's head he was grinding into dust.

Kame tried contacting Aya, but even with the ground they'd lost, they were too far away from the Murasaki to reach anyone aboard. He was fiddling with the frequencies when there was a deafening bang and a scream from the cockpit. Taguchi staggered out, singed fingertips in his mouth and smudges on his cheeks, and said, "We can add the comm to the list of things that's not working properly."

"No kidding." Kame helped him to his cabin, lending as much support as he could manage without Taguchi sending them both crashing to the floor, while Jin returned to the cockpit to see if Nakamaru was all right.

Fortunately, there was no fire. The Yunaka's pilot was seated as far away from the helm as he could get, given that the seats didn't move, and was touching the controls very gingerly with his good hand while sneaking peeks at the blackened panels to his right. His skin tone would've made milk look sunburned, but he didn't appear to have been hit by any stray sparks.

"Are you hurt?" Jin asked. "Aside from the wrist, I mean."

"I'm great," Nakamaru said with forced cheer. "I could keep this up all day!" As he finished his sentence, a mechanical screech filled the room; his shoulders slumped in defeat and the rigid, "you couldn't pry this off my face with a crowbar" smile disappeared.

"What?" Jin said nervously. "Don't tell me that was the life-support system or something."

"Almost as bad. That was the hyperdrive."

That put paid to their chances of making a jump to safety, even if Koki and Ueda did manage to do anything with the artificial gravity generator - which, judging by the way Jin's feet were just barely skimming the ground, was looking less and less likely.

"She's falling apart, Jin." The Yunaka might only have been a ship, but for the pain in Nakamaru's voice, she might as well have been flesh and blood. "And there's nothing we can do to stop it."

Jin quickly weighed up their options. There were only two, and one of them ended with six funerals. The other was such a long shot that Jin actually had a better chance of playing forward for the Martian Marauders.

"Can we stop playing hide-and-seek and head straight for Deimos?"

"Well..."

"Can we?"

"It's not that simple!" It was the first time Jin had ever heard Nakamaru yell. "The only reason they don't have us in a tractor beam right now is because they can't get a lock on us while we're weaving through the asteroid field. The moment we get into open space, they'll haul us in...and that's if we've even got enough power to get there."

"Try anyway," Jin ordered. "If we can get closer to Deimos, we might be able to get a message across."

"The comm just blew up, in case you hadn't heard, and you'd have to be much closer to Deimos to use your datband."

"The external communications array is okay, though. I can use that to boost the datband signal."

Nakamaru gave him a warning look. "You'd have to suit up and go outside - and our shields failed two minutes ago. Getting shot would be the least of your worries."

Frankly, Jin thought that asteroids or no asteroids, getting shot was still a pretty major concern. He swallowed his next speech, which was going to be all about him nobly volunteering, and sank to the floor, clutching his useless datband as if he could physically boost its range.

Kame came flying through the door a second later - literally, flying, because the artificial gravity generator picked that moment to give up the ghost and Jin had to wrap his legs round the nearest seat to keep himself grounded. Koki and Ueda were right behind him, both dishevelled and panting, supporting the still-dazed Taguchi between them. They clung to the wall with everything they had, desperate to keep the ship's motion from splattering them across the cockpit, but Kame risked launching himself across to Jin's side.

He caught hold of the back of the weapons chair, slipped himself through the restraints, and collapsed, panting. "Guys, we're in serious trouble. I've just been down to check out the life support system and-"

The lights went out, leaving the six young men in cold, still darkness. The Yunaka was dead in space.


	11. Chapter 11

"Don't panic," said Kame. "If you panic, you'll use up our remaining oxygen that much faster." He reached down to pat Jin's shoulder, but missed in the dark and ended up tapping him on the nose instead.

Jin batted Kame's hand away. It wasn't easy to keep calm when all he could hear was laboured breaths and a creaking hull. "Are we going to...?"

"No," Kame said firmly. "We're not. Do those little lights on your datband actually work? Even the emergency power seems to be drained."

It took Jin a couple of attempts to activate his datband and force his trembling fingers to press the switch. He wasn't sure if the shivers were from fear or the sudden drop in temperature, but either way they were a nuisance. Pink, blue and green light shot out from the band, allowing Jin to see everyone but Kame, who was sitting above him.

'Fear' was too small a word to describe their expressions. Even 'terror' didn't quite cut it. Jin wondered if he looked equally petrified.

"There's an escape capsule," Nakamaru said quietly, rubbing his injured wrist. "But it only holds two. We never thought we were going to need more."

Koki tried for an apologetic smile. "Jan Ken for it?" he offered.

Even Ueda's feathers looked ruffled, but his voice was steady when he said, "It's your ship."

"That's fairest, right?" Taguchi added.

"Stop wasting oxygen." Kame looped a trailing restraint round his ankle and pushed off towards the weapons locker. "We don't have long before the Murasaki picks us up, and I'd like to be armed when that happens."

"If that's your idea of reassurance, you really need to work on it," Jin said, but he followed Kame's example regardless, removing a blaster from the locker and tucking it securely in his belt.

Kame, who wasn't wearing a belt, had to make do with stuffing a stunner in the free pocket of his sweatpants. The other pocket contained a small box; in the box was a diamond...and in the diamond was a tiny flaw, a pair of entwined rings.

He was also holding the nerve disruptor he'd appropriated from Ishida. Taguchi produced the same weird gun he'd shot Kame with a few weeks ago - Kame hastily got out of the way in case of accidental discharge - and Nakamaru took out the odd, toy-like weapon Jin had seen earlier. Koki and Ueda helped themselves to weapons - two, in Koki's case - and everyone grabbed some of the excess clothing strewn around to protect them against the chill.

"How come you always end up in *my* sweatshirts?" Koki grumbled as Kame threw on yet another 'JOKER'-emblazoned hooded top.

Kame wasn't listening to him, or to Nakamaru's exaggerated shivers, or to Jin fidgeting with his datband. He was too busy arguing with himself.

Kamenashi Kazuya was not usually an indecisive person. He weighed up his options, made his decisions, and followed them with all his heart. That didn't mean that he always made the right decision. He simply made the best choices he could with what he had at hand.

His choices this time were limited. Sit in the darkness with his friends and wait to die (through extreme cold, lack of oxygen, and possibly an asteroid slamming into the hull) or commandeer a LIPS cruiser and change his life forever. The Yunaka was finished, that was clear; if Kame and the others were going to survive, they needed to get aboard the Murasaki. Once they had control, they could simply tow the Yunaka.

And with Ishida in charge and who knew how many others following him, the only way to do that and keep their lives was to go on the offensive. They could worry about sorting out the mess afterwards.

"Stunners," he said eventually. "Just...stun them if you can. I'm going to have a hard time clearing my name if I'm standing on a pile of corpses."

"But you don't know who to trust!" Jin protested.

"Easy." Despite the desperate situation, Kame flashed them a grin. "I'll trust the five of you."

It would've been a great time for a group hug, if they'd been into that sort of thing, but they weren't; moreover, the risk of shooting each other by accident was too great and group hugs in zero gravity situations were fraught with difficulties. They caught each other by whatever flailing body parts were available, slowly working their way out; with the light from Jin's datband Koki was able to track down their emergency torch en route - once fixed to the wall, it had come loose from its moorings and was drifting quite happily towards the cargo hold.

The extra light didn't do much to boost their spirits, but to be fair, things were looking hopeless.

"Switch off the torch just before the door opens," Kame said once they were in position by the door. Last time the Murasaki's tunnel had clamped to the Yunaka's side, and Gustav had forced the door open by resetting the lock. "It gives us too much light. The Murasaki can't get a read on our status, which means they don't know we've lost power, only that we've stopped. We could be surrendering, for all they know."

Jin smirked, teeth gleaming eerily in the pale blue light from his datband. "Not this time."

"You want to get the jump on them in the dark," Ueda said.

"Almost. There will be a certain amount of light filtering through from the Murasaki, and that'll be enough for us to see *them* by, so long as we don't blind ourselves first."

This last was addressed to Taguchi, who was staring into the torch beam with mesmerised eyes. He shook his head, apologised, and settled for staring at Jin's colourful disco lights instead. They were continually moving since Jin kept trying to flatten his hair, which floated off of its own accord. He met with limited success.

"Nobody's going to care if you're having a bad hair day," Kame murmured.

"You might. Once we get somewhere safe."

Kame bumped Jin's hip with his own - not that easy, while floating - and said, "Believe me, once we get somewhere safe I intend to mess your hair up _properly_."

Jin was just about to make a suitably flirtatious retort when a crash sounded from the other side of the door. The Murasaki's tunnel sealed over the entrance; Koki made sure to give Nakamaru's injury lots of room before switching off the torch. Artificial gravity generated by the other ship began to seep through, catching the Yunaka in its field and causing the occupants to descend gently to the floor.

"Any last words of advice, given that it's your ex-colleagues about to burst through that door?" Jin asked.

"Yeah. Stun anything that moves."

With no power the electronic lock was useless, as those on the other side soon found out. All went silent for a moment. Then the door gave way under a combination of good old-fashioned muscle and sturdy metal tools, and half-a-dozen LIPS officers, all armed, peered into the darkness.

They didn't get the chance to do more than that. Five dropped to stunner-fire; the sixth was felled by Taguchi and laughed hysterically until Koki silenced him. Kame looked at the faces of his ex-colleagues and groaned.

"What?" Jin said anxiously. "Did we shoot a friend of yours?"

"Not exactly, but..." Kame tucked Aya's trailing braid out of the way so she wouldn't wake up with her hair trapped underneath Morgan's legs. "These are all the people I thought I could safely contact. We have to assume everyone else knows."

Koki looked happy about this. "Then we don't have to hold back," he said.

"Be careful," Kame warned. "We need to keep the ship intact at all costs." He didn't need to add what would happen if both ships were disabled.

Jin expected his racing heartbeat to be audible even over the rumble of the Murasaki's engines. It wasn't, though it was deafening to his ears. *This* was what he'd wanted - a chance to strike out, to take action and see what he could do with his own strength. He hadn't banked on having five companions along for the ride.

They moved as six, since Kame was the only one who really knew his way round. He was surprised to find that his access codes still worked. Courtesy of Jin's lock-pick and Ueda's earring, he was even able to get into rooms he'd never seen before. Most of them were empty, and the handful that weren't were quickly cleared. They were heading for the cockpit, of course, but there was no sense in leaving someone conscious to sneak up behind them.

It was easier than Kame had expected to open fire on men and women who wore the same uniform he'd once been proud to wear. All he had to do was picture Ishida's smirking face, fading black eye and all, and pulling the trigger was as simple as drawing breath.

Kame knew where all the cameras were. Video only, no audio. Ishida would be watching their progress, no doubt, and if he and the remainder of the crew were holed up in the cockpit with much in the way of weaponry - and he had to assume that they were - Kame and co. were going to be dead the second they breached the door. They had to improve the odds, somehow, and it was Jin who sparked the idea.

"Are you still carrying the diamond?" he asked Kame.

Kame pushed him aside, stunned Gustav in the stomach, and pulled him back into place. Behind Jin, the unfortunate LIPS officer crashed to the floor, where he was rolled unceremoniously into the nearest empty cabin by Ueda. "Still got it," he said, patting his pocket.

"Could we draw Ishida out with that, maybe? He might come out alone, he's the only one who's after it."

"He's got a point," Ueda said. "We can pick off small groups like this, but if we charge the cockpit we'll be wasting our time - and our lives. We need to make them come to us."

Koki and Taguchi, bringing up the rear, confirmed that the rest was clear. "They haven't sent anyone else out, though," Koki said. "What are they waiting for? They've got to know we're taking down everyone caught out here."

"There's only so many people you can fit in a cockpit without getting in each other's way," Nakamaru pointed out. "That's the area they need to protect, unless you want to risk messing around with the engines or something."

Kame shook his head. "I'd rather not do anything that puts the ship in danger. Life support controls are in the cockpit too, so we can't get them that way. We'll have to get them out."

He walked a little further down the corridor to where he knew there was a camera, drew the box from his pocket and popped the lid open to reveal the diamond. Jin followed, keeping a wary distance.

Kame held Kizuna in one hand, made a peace sign with the other, and flashed an award-winning grin at the camera. Then he drew the blaster from Jin's belt and blew it to pieces.

"You think that'll get their attention?" Kame asked, trying hard not to laugh when he caught Jin's eye.

Jin had already given himself over to a giggling fit of galactic proportions, and couldn't do more than nod. That didn't stop him from snapping to immediate attention the second he heard a sliding door.

"You got nothing to bargain with, rookie!" Ishida's voice floated down the corridor, followed closely by heavy footsteps. "You can either give it up nicely and maybe I'll be nice and leave you and your new friends on some backwater planet at the far end of the galaxy that won't develop space travel till long after you're dead, or you can make things tough on yourself and put up a fight, in which case I'll be happy to take it from your corpse. Your choice."

"Charming guy, isn't he?" Nakamaru commented. "Kame, I'm amazed you'd ever want to leave the unit."

Kame rolled his eyes and yelled back at Ishida. "How about a third option? You and your pals get locked in the holding cells till we make planetfall, then I testify against you and you go to jail for a long, long time.

"Do they know, Ishida? Do they know you're in trouble with the Kitagawa Family and that your life won't be worth a wrecked shuttle if you don't get your hands on this? Or do they think you're their poor, hard-done-by leader, shamefully attacked by his own subordinate as revenge for that little interrogation stunt? Do they want me dead to cover their own backs, so no one's around to explain why we went to Kurogin when we should've gone back to Lunacy?"

"They think whatever I want them to think," Ishida retorted, "and what I think of you, Kamenashi, isn't even worth mentioning."

Jin scowled at this and started forward, but Kame shook his head. "He's not worth it," he murmured. "Getting baited by this guy's nothing new. Doesn't count for anything."

At least, Kame didn't like to let it count for anything. But some days it was harder than others to block out the resentment, the taunting...what was, sometimes, tantamount to hatred. He couldn't show it, though. He'd learned, since he'd signed up with LIPS, to hide his feelings, to keep from his face any expression that might give his tormentors encouragement.

When Jin stepped up beside him and gave him a lopsided smile - full of shy warmth, not pity - Kame thought that perhaps it was time for him to stop hiding.

"Insult me all you want, but make up your mind. We're getting bored over here. If you need some extra motivation, how about this?" Kame turned the volume up on his datband and played the recording of Ishida threatening him in the showers. It was embarrassing, but it wasn't as if the others didn't know it all by now. "Anything happens to me, you'll never find out who's got copies."

Privately, Jin thought it unlikely Kame had sent it to anyone, even his former captain, but he didn't want to spoil things by asking. Kame hadn't bothered to tell anyone what kind of game he was playing - but Jin had the feeling that the rules were changing every five seconds.

Ishida's response was incomprehensible, and even if it hadn't been, it would certainly have been unrepeatable. Kame heard snickers behind him.

"Didn't catch that, sorry. Try again?" he suggested.

"In one of the many human languages, maybe?" Ueda added.

"You're a dead man, Kamenashi!"

An enraged Ishida finally appeared round the corner, clutching a new nerve disruptor and doing a passable imitation of a herd of stampeding buffalo. Unfortunately, the 'herd' description was accurate rather than fanciful - Ishida was flanked by half the unit, all of them armed and none of them friendly.

There was a reason Kame had picked this particular spot - the break room was on the left, the locker room on the right, and both were open and ready to be used for cover. Ueda ducked left, pulling Nakamaru with him; Jin fired twice without looking and dived after them. Taguchi and Kame sprang right, almost getting bowled over by Koki, who threw himself through the door and came up shooting.

Despite nearly ending up sprawled all over Taguchi, Kame was cheerful. One of Jin's shots had gone wild, but the other had hit Carl. Kame was starting to regret asking the others to stun only. Some of the shots headed their way were considerably more deadly. It didn't surprise Kame in the slightest that his unit had been hoarding weapons - some of them illegal - on the ship. He'd seen power packs tucked away in one of the rooms he'd never had access to until today; presumably, they'd been keeping their guns in storage while Kame was around.

Shooting stopped entirely for a moment when one of the LIPS officers curled up in the middle of the corridor and started giggling helplessly, as though someone were tickling her all over. Ishida put a stop to it soon enough, hitting her with a nerve disruptor. Taguchi looked sick after that, but the fight continued.

Mostly, Ishida stayed round the corner, occasionally darting out to take a shot. He didn't seem to care how many of his fellow officers fell.

On the other side, Ueda caught the edge of a weak stunner blast with his fingertips, putting his entire hand out of commission until the numbness wore off. Koki also attained superficial injuries - his hat fell out in the corridor, only to be shredded in seconds. He redoubled his efforts after that.

Kame had, thus far, managed to avoid getting hurt. Both quick and agile, he was able to retreat back to the safety of the locker room before anything could hit him. Again and again he peeked out, spraying rapid stunner fire across the corridor, until the pale blue beam sputtered and died before it even made it halfway to its target.

He checked the stunner carefully. No power. The damned thing was on empty and he hadn't thought to take any power packs with him. It was absolutely maddening. So maddening, in fact, that Kame took his useless stunner, wound up like he was about to throw the fastball of his life, and pitched it down the corridor. There was a satisfying 'clunk' as it connected with an unprotected skull, and a badly-bruised DeMille sank to the ground.

Jin looked across the passage at Kame, who was grinning triumphantly. "Who *throws* a stunner?"

Kame gave him a victory sign. "Told you I wanted to be a baseball player, didn't I?"

 _Show-off_ , Jin thought, but he grinned back. While he had plenty of confidence in his skills with a soccer ball, he didn't fancy trying a similar feat once his own stunner was out of charge.

Which was going to be soon. No matter how many LIPS officers fell, more just kept on coming. There didn't seem to be an end to their numbers. Every shot had to count for something, and unfortunately a lot of them didn't. If Jin used up the charge on his stunner, he'd have to use the blaster, and that meant he wasn't aiming to temporarily neutralise his adversaries - he was aiming to hurt them. Maybe even kill them.

In the opposite room, Kame was facing the same problem. The nerve disruptor, even on the lowest setting, was guaranteed to do considerable damage to its victim. Kame didn't want the responsibility for that.

"Don't think this hasn't been fun, rookie, but can we hurry it up?" Ishida shouted. "I've got to prepare for your funeral, where I'll have to tell the tragic tale of how your captors suborned you, twisting your mind and turning you against your own unit."

Perhaps Kame was prepared to take responsibility after all. Scrambling Ishida's brains was a tempting idea. He set the nerve disruptor down to minimum and fired at Ishida's legs, figuring he could cripple him and keep his conscience relatively clear.

Ishida sidestepped. The beam continued until it hit the mirror at the end of the corridor, then bounced back.

Straight towards Jin, who'd darted out to fire his last couple of stunner shots at an angle in an attempt to get Ishida round the corner.

The beam was at ankle level. Jin would never have noticed it, and shouting would only confuse him. Kame launched himself across the corridor, slamming into Jin and sending them both crashing to the break room floor.

"What was that for?" Jin gasped, trying to get Kame off his chest so he had room to breathe. "I thought you had more control than this, Kame. Couldn't you at least have waited till people aren't shooting at us?"

"Shut up." Kame pushed himself up with his hands, hovering over Jin. "I just saved you from spending the rest of your life in a wheelchair."

"Too bad you had to break my back to do it."

"Sorry." He planted a quick kiss on Jin's lips, much to the amusement of Nakamaru and Ueda, and propelled himself to his feet. "You'll live. Here." He offered Jin a hand up.

Jin took it, wincing at the way his bones popped. The break room was, he thought, aptly named, since breakage was a very real possibility after a close encounter with the floor.

"Kame!" Koki shouted from across the corridor. "Look!"

Kame stuck his head out the doorway. "Look at what?"

Then he saw it. A small velvet box, sitting out in the middle of the firing zone. Instinct prompted him to pat his pocket, but he knew it was useless. The diamond must've fallen out when he tackled Jin.

And without that to use as leverage, all Kame had left was the recording. One version. There were copies back on the Yunaka, but they might as well have been on Pluto. He hadn't sent any out, of course - hadn't thought even thought about it until he'd actually made the threat to Ishida. He'd been counting on Kizuna.

Ishida had seen it too - but with shots still flying freely, neither man could risk retrieving it. It was a stalemate situation, waiting for one party to admit defeat.

Both parties being on the stubborn side, this didn't happen, but a break came from an unexpected source.

The speaker on Jin's datband crackled into life. "Jin? You doing okay in there? Need me to bust you out?"

Jin couldn't believe his ears. "Yamapi?" he spluttered. All around him looked bewildered. "Where are you?"

"Right outside. Can I come in?"

Jin looked questioningly at Kame. Kame stared back, confused.

"Why are you looking at me?" Kame said.

"Because I'm not asking *them* for permission!" Jin gestured towards the corridor. "And your resignation isn't official yet because you haven't told anyone!"

Kame shrugged. "Fine. But don't blame me if your pal gets himself shot."

"Pi, be careful," Jin warned. "I'm holed up in the break room, we've got a couple of guys in the locker room opposite, and there are a load of angry LIPS officers trying to kill us."

"That's fine," Yamapi said blithely. "I'm not here alone, you know. See you in a few minutes."

When a tunnel clamped to the Murasaki's small airlock and the doors were forced open, the noise made everyone stop. Ishida and his remaining officers retreated round the corner, leaving their fallen, while Kame took advantage of the sudden interruption to snatch the box from the floor.

"What's going on?" Koki asked, slipping across to join them. "Don't tell me they've given up and gone home. I was just starting to get into it."

"I think the cavalry's just arrived," Kame said.

"Not exactly." Jin wasn't sure how to explain any of this to his new friends. Introducing Kame to Yamapi, and vice versa, was going to be interesting. He couldn't all very well say, "This is my best friend, we used to mess around a little - or a lot, actually." Equally, there was no good way to say, "This is the guy I'm hoping will pay more attention to me than the furniture when we finally get near a bed big enough for two."

The door at the end slid open. Sixteen heavily-armed figures, all dressed in full armour, marched through. Hidden behind them was Yamashita Tomohisa, carrying nothing deadlier than a stunner and dressed far more fashionably. He hastily rubbed his eyes when he saw Jin.

"Next time you run away, tell me so I don't go crazy, Bakanishi!" Yamapi said, throwing his arms round Jin's neck and half-strangling him with an enthusiastic hug.

"Um...I can explain," Jin croaked out. The brief flicker of resentment that crossed Kame's face made him think he'd better talk fast.

"Ah, first, these guys need to know where Ishida Makoto is. He's a LIPS sergeant serving on this ship - do you-"

"Round that corner," Kame said shortly, pointing to indicate.

The armour-clad group nodded and jogged off in that direction, never saying a word. Between what they were wearing and what they were carrying, they weren't going to have any trouble dealing with Ishida and crew.

"Pi, who *are* those guys?"

Yamapi finally withdrew, though he had to pause to unsnag his earring from Jin's hair. Kame's expression darkened. Only Jin noticed.

"The old man's niece sent them," Yamapi explained. "They're sort of her private army. That Ishida guy owes her something - I don't know what - and he's late paying up. We've been following his ship for a couple of days now, waiting for an opportunity to...uh...remind him of his debt."

"That still doesn't tell me what you're doing here." Jin turned to face the others, but mostly, he talked to Kame. "Guys, this is my best friend, Yamashita Tomohisa. Yamapi for short. He works for old man Kitagawa. Pi, I'd like you to meet Nakamaru Yuichi, Ueda Tatsuya, Tanaka Koki, Taguchi Junnosuke...and Kamenashi Kazuya. We're all...um...well..." He searched for a good way to describe them.

"We're with the Yunaka," Koki said. "That ship attached to the side."

"The one with the big hole in it and a load of open boxes and stuff leaking out?"

Nakamaru groaned. "Our ship!"

"There wasn't a hole when we left it," Koki said. "Must've taken a beating without the shields."

"So much for the jewellery haul." Ueda sounded mournful, no doubt calculating the extent of their financial distress.

"And now there's a hole in the hold instead of a haul," Taguchi added.

Only Kame remained silent. He never took his eyes off Yamapi, who was happily oblivious to being stared at. Kame was happy for the rescue, but he wasn't that keen on the source. Fine, the guy was Jin's best friend. They'd probably known each other for years. It was perfectly normal to hug your friends.

 _But did he have to stand so close to Jin?_

Kame swallowed the tiny pangs of jealousy that threatened to make themselves known to all and sundry. Time enough to deal with such petty emotions later, when they were alone - if they were ever alone - and Kame could make sure Jin was serious.

Yamapi made the expected bows and polite gestures. "The deal we went to witness went down fine. We were having a great time in Lunacy, just catching up - I bought you a present, by the way, but it took me so long to find you that I ate it, sorry - and then the first night, we got into a fight at a restaurant and I got locked up for a while."

Kame remembered Captain Maynard mentioning something about an "idiot out-of-towner" who'd started a brawl in a restaurant, and wondered if this was the person he'd been referring to.

"Some LIPS guy let me out," Yamapi continued. "When I got home, I found you gone, no message, and no one knew where you were so I figured you'd run away. It took me forever to get in to see the old man, but he said if you ever switched your datband on again, he could track it."

"The lights," Jin said. "I switched on the lights when the power went out."

"And that's when you showed up on this." Yamapi held up a personal datapad. "I've got the tracker on here. I didn't expect to find you while I was looking for Ishida. The old man loaned me to his niece so he had someone *he* trusted with these guys, and said I should keep looking for you afterwards. He gave me a message for you. Here." He pressed a couple of buttons on his datband. Jin's, which was still on though the lights had been deactivated, gave a 'message received' bleep. "You can listen to it later."

"Did you listen to it?"

"I was there when he recorded it."

Jin took that as a positive sign. Pi wasn't warning him to get the hell out of the galaxy because there was a price on his head, or anything like that, so it probably wasn't going to be one of those messages you got the second before someone sneaked up behind you and sliced your head off with a scythe.

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it." Yamapi caught his arm and drew him into a corner, allowing them the illusion of privacy. "Why did you leave?" he whispered. "I know you were talking about finding a new place, but did something happen while I was away? Or did you get jealous about me and Captain Takki and decide you couldn't take it anymore?"

The very idea. "No, I was not jealous of you and Captain Takki," Jin said at normal volume so Kame could hear, and hopefully infer from this that Yamapi wasn't competition. "I saw something I'd been deliberately ignoring for years, Pi, and I couldn't block it out anymore. So I left while I still could, before I lost the desire to explore."

 _Before I become nothing more than a cheap thug, spending every day collecting protection money, coming down like a thunderbolt on anyone who doesn't pay up; content to live my life on the same planet, in the same country, in the same damned city and never caring that there's so much more out there._

Before I become someone I don't want to be. I don't know what I want yet...but I do know that I want the freedom to find it.

Jin didn't need to say any of this aloud. Pi would either understand or he wouldn't, but Jin wasn't going to explain. Not then.

"I was going to send you a message, but there never seemed to be a good time," he finished. "Things were a little..."

"It's okay. Sometimes I'm bad about sending messages too." Yamapi's good cheer was undiminished. "You're not coming back with me, are you?"

Jin shook his head.

Kame brightened. "We need to get back to Lunacy so I can explain myself - and resign! Could we get a ride?"

Yamapi's eyes flicked from Jin to Kame and back again, but if he noticed anything, he kept it to himself. "Sure. It's not my ship anyway."

"Then don't agree just like that!" Koki said.

One of the anonymous armour-wearers returned, carrying an armful of illegal weaponry. "We've got room," he said. "We're headed back to Earth, so stopping off at Lunacy's not a problem. These guys need to be returned to their owners, anyway."

A gaggle of subdued LIPS officers, some tied up, were herded towards the holding cells. Those still on the floor were slung unceremoniously over shoulders and carried off in the same direction.

Kame didn't feel too guilty about it. While most of his ex-colleagues had probably been following Ishida blindly, it would take a proper investigation to sort it all out. How many times, before Kame had joined them, had they made a profit out of their arrests by sneaking off to deserted locations and removing choice bits of cargo for themselves? How many rookies had they set up and hounded out?

He did feel a little sympathy for the six still stunned in the tunnel, though. They were brought in and placed in a cell of their own. If they were innocent, Captain Maynard would take care of them. If not, Kame reasoned, they deserved everything they got.

The tunnel was withdrawn not a moment too soon as word came through that the Yunaka was starting to break up. Had the door seals not held on the cargo hold, Aya and the others would've been in severe trouble. As it was, there were few casualties, and all of them were LIPS officers.

With the exception of the Yunaka herself, of course. Yamapi offered to have the men try a salvage operation, but, after a couple of well-hidden manly tears, Koki and Nakamaru admitted that there was nothing on board worth risking anyone's lives for, not after the damage caused by the hull breach.

"The most important things from the ship have already been saved," Nakamaru added.

"Except my favourite hat," mourned Koki, but everyone ignored him.

Ishida was brought out - unbound, but unarmed, and flanked by two men who made him look like an anorexic stick insect. He didn't appreciate having his authority taken away, much less by someone who really *was* working for Kitagawa.

"My boss would hate to think you've forgotten about a certain precious jewel," Yamapi said mildly. "His niece believes that a reminder is in order. I hadn't planned for it to be a criminal trial, but I think it all works out in the end."

"I can give her the diamond!" Ishida screamed. "They've got it!"

Ueda looked baffled. "We had it," he said carefully, "but we left it on the Yunaka. In the cargo hold, whose contents are probably halfway to Pluto by now."

Six other people in the room knew this was a lie, and one of them was Ishida. "Search Kamenashi," he insisted. "He had it. I saw it in his hand!"

Kame shrugged. "I had the box, sure," he took it out of his pocket, opened it and tossed it on the ground, "but I didn't bring the diamond. I thought it would be safer to leave it behind so I could bargain with it later. The box was just to get your attention."

"Liar!"

"You'd say anything to save your own neck," Kame said coolly.

"And I'd do anything to _break_ yours, rookie," Ishida snarled. "You couldn't just have done like the others - gone crying to the captain for a transfer. No, you had to prove you weren't the loser I know you are, stick it out like a tough guy so you can poke and pry till you're blue in the face. What did you want, a piece of the action? Was that why you wouldn't quit, 'cause you knew what we were doing and you wanted in? If you'd come right out and said it, I might not have tried to set you up.

"But I guess a wimp like you wouldn't go for something like that, huh? Too afraid of getting caught, of getting a blemish on that perfect record. Scared the captain wouldn't like you anymore? He made a mistake when he assigned you to *my* ship. You never belonged with us, freak!"

Kame stood back, didn't clench his fists, didn't change expression. He kept calm, on the outside, taking it all and filing it away with everything else he never wanted to hear again. If not for the slight tremor in the muscles, the lips set in a firm line, and the eyes as cold as wintry death, no one would have known he was angry, let alone irate enough to plunge his hand straight through Ishida's empty heart.

Jin couldn't hide his emotions - especially not when he got fired up. Listening to Ishida's slurs and insults drove him to fury on Kame's behalf. Before he knew it, his right fist was flying towards Ishida's face.

"I'll have you arrested!" Ishida yelled, struggling to his feet.

"For doing what?" Yamapi said. "I didn't see anything."

Jin nodded his thanks and stepped back to rub his bruised knuckles.

His wounded expression broke through Kame's mask, allowing a small smile to shine through. "If that's your idea of a present, Jin-"

"Nah," Jin interrupted before Kame could make him blush. "I just promised Ueda I'd make sure Ishida's eyes matched."


	12. Chapter 12

It was a strange trip back to Lunacy. Yamapi's temporary ship dwarfed both the Yunaka and the Murasaki (he said the captain was overcompensating for something) and the wreckage of the Yunaka was brought inside for safe disposal while the purple-and-white LIPS cruiser, now with her crew locked in the holding cells, was towed alongside. That made it a slow journey through the asteroid field.

More than enough time for everyone to catch their breath. Nakamaru disappeared into the ship's infirmary to get himself fixed up properly; Koki followed, complaining about their lack of insurance for the Yunaka, to which Nakamaru pointed out that they could hardly claim for billions in stolen jewels. Koki shut up after that.

Taguchi raided Yamapi's collection of handheld game consoles, looking for a game he hadn't already beaten twenty times, while Ueda planted himself at the comm and refused to move until he'd gotten in touch with his bank.

Jin borrowed one of the cabins, wanting privacy to listen to his message from the old man. He wasn't sure what to expect. Not a tearful farewell, obviously, but not a death threat, either. Would anyone even care that he'd gone, other than Yamapi?

Two of those faceless armour-wearing flunkies had been female, and since both of them were on guard duty over at the Murasaki, they'd kindly allowed Jin to use their cabin. It was a proper bedroom - no pull-down beds here - and while one half was sparkling pristine, the other half was buried under a layer of clothing, accessories, blaster power packs, and old hardcopies of Myojo. In an effort to delay the inevitable, Jin flipped idly through an issue, noting that the pull-out poster of JE Fleet Captain Kimura Takuya was smeared with lipstick kisses. He set the magazine down in a hurry.

Kame came in just as Jin had kicked off his boots and settled down against the pillows. He was carrying two plates, each bearing a hefty slice of chocolate cake. "It's the pilot's birthday," he said by way of explanation. "The cake's big enough to feed two hundred, I didn't think anyone would notice if I snagged a couple of pieces."

"You've obviously been hanging out with criminals too long."

"If it gets me cake like this, it's worth it." He set the plates down on the bedside table.

"Kame," Jin said quietly, "can you give me a few minutes?" He held up his datband.

Kame got the message. "I think we need some drinks to go with the cake. I'll go see what's around."

Jin shot him a grateful smile and waited till the door slid shut to hit the play button on his datband. There was a dry cough, then the aged - but still sharp - voice of old man Kitagawa filtered through the speaker. It wasn't a long message.

 _"YOU, come back and visit this old man someday."_

It wasn't a threat. There was no element of coercion, no implication that if Jin didn't return, he'd be hunted down and dragged back whether he liked it or not. There was merely an open invitation, which as good as proved that Jin could let go of some of the paranoia he'd been carefully hoarding.

"Ready for a drink?" Kame called through the door.

Jin was, but Kame had only brought juice. Jin couldn't blame him, given what had happened the last time Kame had drunk alcohol.

"Was it...something to worry about? The message, I mean."

"It was...I think it was goodbye. More like 'see you again'." Suddenly ravenous now that he didn't have to worry about being shot in the stomach, Jin devoured half his slice in the space of ten seconds.

"So you really are free, now?"

"Yeah. Or," Jin amended, "I will be once we get the stupid fines and kidnapping charges and stuff sorted out in Lunacy. But this..." He looked down at his datband, now deactivated. "He can track me. Nothing nearly as crude as Ishida did to yours - I can't just break a piece off and hope for the best."

"So get rid of it," Kame suggested.

"Huh?"

"Get rid of it." Kame sipped his juice maddeningly slowly before continuing. "You won't switch it on again, which makes it a useless accessory. Get rid of it. You can always get another one."

One without all the interesting mods, like the disco lights and the pulse for knocking out alarm systems, but Jin could live without those. He couldn't live without his freedom, though, and if he hung onto his datband, that was always going to be an issue.

"Fine," he decided. "It's going out the airlock. Just as soon as I finish my cake."

Kame slipped his own datband over his wrist. "Might as well get rid of them both at the same time."

"Don't you need that for evidence or something?"

"I've already made six copies. That should be enough. I don't want to be wearing my past round my wrist any more than you do."

Later, when the cake and juice were nothing but trace memories on their tongues, Kame and Jin stood inside the airlock. On the count of three, both threw their datbands to the floor and withdrew. Kame hit the switch for the interior door, preventing them from being sucked out when Jin hit the switch for the exterior door. Neither man looked out the porthole afterwards. The shiny silver bangles, now useless, were left to drift through space.

\-----

 _**Six months later...** _

They needed more cabins, Jin decided. Their Striped Tiger Mk II, registered by its previous owner as 'My Most Precious One and Only Love' and dubbed 'Precious One' by Ueda after its acquisition, had, like the Yunaka, only two cabins usable for bedrooms. Three months ago - on Valentine's Day, to be exact - they'd swindled a smuggler out of it during a rigged poker tournament in Lunacy.

There were two unfortunate consequences of this action. First, while he'd been telling the truth about the ship's legal status - it wasn't on a hotlist anywhere - he'd been lying about its capacity. Kame could've kicked himself for not asking for blueprints before allowing the ship's papers to be thrown in the pot, but it would have made no difference. They'd have taken anything they could at that point, so long as it had a hyperdrive and at least one working shield generator.

The second consequence was that the smuggler had realised Jin had been cheating and gone for his gun, which had attracted all sorts of unwanted attention. Koki, dressed as a cocktail waitress in high heels, a long, blond wig and not much else, had snatched up the papers, the hard currency and as much of the jewellery as he could manage (inadvertently walking off with the deed to a condo on Pluto as well) and tottered out as fast as he could. The cops hadn't been far behind - only Taguchi's high-speed driving skills, honed through years of racing games, had gotten them clear.

Almost getting arrested on Valentine's Day was the most excitement Jin had had in months. The six of them had stayed in Lunacy till then, but it hadn't been an easy ride by any means.

After Jin, Kame and the others had disembarked in Lunacy, accompanied by an armed escort and an entire unit of angry LIPS officers, they'd been thrust into a what should have been a whirlwind of bureaucracy but was actually more like a hippopotamus twirling in slow motion. Paperwork seemed to multiply overnight, taking years to process. Kame's resignation was accepted, but since he had to stick around to give evidence Captain Maynard insisted on rehiring him as a civilian aide, on the grounds that he was therefore in the area when needed for questioning and he was still getting paid.

Explaining exactly what had happened and who was responsible for it all proved too much even for Kame's imagination, but Yamapi provided a solution by accidentally insinuating that the Kitagawa Family would very much like it if these events were glossed over, particularly anything relating to jewellery. He hadn't meant to, but Captain Maynard was so used to years of oblique orders from higher powers that he simply went along with it.

So the Yunaka went down as a ship whose innocent crew, faced with only an accidental weapons discharge fine (now waived), had been harrassed by Ishida for the holoship incident (which they'd obviously had nothing to do with) and taken to Kurogin orbital prison as part of his systematic scheme of arresting ships, then stripping them for profit. Most of the unit were found guilty on charges of possessing banned weapons - and some, on other, even more disturbing charges - though not, Kame was pleased to note, Aya and her unconscious companions. While they hadn't exactly been friends to him, they had, at least, been cordial, even helpful on occasion.

The recording, Captain Maynard was holding as his trump card. In case they didn't have enough against Ishida, even with his own colleagues and Kurogin staff testifying against him, the captain intended to bring up Ishida's assault on a fellow officer...and his involvement with the Kitagawas.

"Only as a last resort, kid," Maynard assured Kame. "Kitagawa would rather his name stayed out of it, so that punk kid with the bad English tells me, and I don't really want to play that little scene for a judge. Even for a guy with pole-dancing as a hobby, that's got to be pretty embarrassing."

"It was only the once, sir. And I don't see anything wrong with pole-dancing."

"You pole-dance?" Jin piped up from the corner of Maynard's office. "Can I watch sometime?"

Kame threw a paper aeroplane at him.

Explaining Jin and the others proved awkward as well, especially since Ueda and Taguchi were both known criminals. However, once the false parking tickets were torn up, no one could get anything on Ueda - assaulting a LIPS officer wasn't included because nobody cared that Ishida had gotten a black eye out of it - and on those grounds, Taguchi had been cleared as well, though he'd been banned from every arcade in the city. Neither of them had much money, but Ueda's services were always in demand, and he made more than enough to keep Taguchi with him in the small apartment he rented. Taguchi helped out as best he could.

"My landlord doesn't allow pets, so he's the next best thing," Ueda had explained when Jin asked him about it.

It was a temporary arrangement, just like Koki's gig in the club, just like Nakamaru's work as a dance instructor, just like Jin's job as a clothing store clerk. (He'd been hired to man the register, but after his first day his boss told him to sit by the window and lure in female customers. Within a week the store's takings had doubled and Jin had the first legal pay rise of his young life.)

They were all waiting. Kame's apartment was tiny, so Jin had clubbed together with Koki and Nakamaru to rent a place between the three of them. Luckily, Lunacy was nowhere near as expensive a place to live as Tokyo.

They could easily have had the money for a replacement ship. Once Yamapi had gone on his merry way, having made a promise with Jin to contact each other regularly (a promise Yamapi had now broken, having left Earth himself last month to run away with a pair of smuggler brothers), Kame had produced Kizuna. He hadn't mentioned the diamond to Captain Maynard. Whatever Ishida said would be assumed to be lies, so that didn't worry him, but he didn't want to cause trouble.

"I could find us a buyer," Ueda said reluctantly, "but even though I wanted you to keep it for financial reasons, I don't think we should sell it now."

"You keep it," Koki said. "We don't need it."

"You already paid for it," Nakamaru said.

"With your career," Taguchi added.

Kame could add to the list of things he'd lost. His confidence had taken a few blows, sure. His self-respect had gone MIA for a while, and even his sanity had been questionable at times. Especially those times he'd dreamt about making out with Jin in an armchair, sliding his fingers between smooth skin and soft fabric, or having them both straddling an arm so Jin was pressed up between the chair back and Kame. After those sorts of dreams, Kame usually had to wind down by going to Ikea and finding himself a new chair. He was starting to run out of room in his apartment. Ishida had a lot to answer for.

Yet Kame had made great gains, also. Thrown together in a cramped ship, taking desperate action with little forethought, the six of them had found it easy to trust each other. They didn't have a choice. Once grounded and at leisure, however, that trust was not so easily maintained. Reactions became unpredictable. Tempers frayed. Being tied to one moon made Jin irritable, and in the cold light of day Kame wondered if he'd made the right choice. They all did.

But they'd bound themselves to him, hadn't they? They had their diamond, their secret. Their _Kizuna_. First one to talk gets a special visit from the Kitagawas.

Kame hoped it was more than the diamond keeping them all near. Their bi-weekly get-togethers, infrequent enough to suit their schedules, made him feel reasonably confident that this was the case. That they stayed because they liked him, and they were willing to wait until Kame was no longer needed by LIPS.

Jin wasn't the only restless one. Koki and Nakamaru were keen to be off again - Koki felt the need for more earrings - and without a ship of their own, they couldn't possibly pull off the operations they used to. Not even Ueda could have afforded a new ship, though.

And in February, the week before Valentine's Day, Kame turned up to the meal looking brighter than he had since he'd gone back to Lunacy.

"It's over," he said. Then, "We should sell it. Buy a ship."

"It's good to keep something in reserve," Ueda said. "Don't even think about selling."

"And what am I supposed to do with an extremely expensive souvenir?"

"Keep it for when we want to retire, just in case we're all as broke then as we are now," Nakamaru suggested.

Privately, Jin thought that at the rate he was going at work, he'd be able to afford at least a shuttle soon - the customers had started giving him tips. Lunacy had a lot of generous ladies...and several men. One, who claimed to be a self-made millionaire, had asked Jin to join him at his holiday home on Venus for the weekend. Jin had responded with, "Sorry, but my boyfriend's worth *billions*," and had gone on his teabreak ten minutes early.

Whether or not Kame would appreciate the description, Jin didn't know. They hadn't had much time to themselves on the way back to Lunacy after disposing of their datbands - Yamapi had come in to talk to Jin, and Kame immediately left the room, pleading a sudden stomachache from the cake. They'd barely spoken for the rest of the trip, and Kame's threat to mess up Jin's hair properly had never come to fruition.

Even once they reached the city, there never seemed to be time. Always an appointment, or work, or grocery-shopping, or _something_. On the one night that Jin visited Kame's apartment by himself, they ended up watching old holovids from the 2940s, starting out at opposite ends of the couch and never quite making it all the way to meeting in the middle. Jin had fallen asleep around one, and had woken up next morning to find himself clutching a 'Gone to work. Bye.' note from Kame, who had, at some point during the night, thrown a quilt over him.

It wasn't easy, it wasn't _right_. Not with the Earth hanging in the sky, a big ball of blue and green, reminding them both where they'd come from. Taunting them. There was so much more out there, so many places to explore, and it wasn't something they could do from Lunacy. It was easier to talk between the stars, more comfortable, more familiar. No dead-ends, no risks. Because when you were trapped in a small ship, you had to make it work at all costs. There was no room for failure.

But in Lunacy, failure was easy, and Jin didn't know Kame nearly well enough to push. It would be all right, he thought, if they could both go far away, where it seemed like they might have some hope.

For that, he was prepared to do (almost) anything.

So when Ueda casually mentioned the underground bi-annual high-stakes poker game, run by a former client of his who was prepared to let them take precautionary measures against losing (he still owed Ueda a favour), Jin leapt at the chance. Of course, preparations had to be made. Kame had insisted on playing as well, to maximise their gains, and Taguchi wanted in too. It wasn't unusual for players to bet property, including ships, and even if no one did, Kame and co. could still count on winning a lot of money.

Ueda, dressed as a mysterious foreign princess, had spent most of his evening in the laps of various wealthy men, playing coyly with their ties in order to plant and remove miniature video cameras. The camera feeds, coordinated by Nakamaru in the back room, went to special glasses worn by Jin, Kame and Taguchi. All players had supposedly had full body scans before entering the game to ensure that any electronic devices were removed, but the scanner had been deactivated when the three of them passed through it.

Koki's job was to circulate, to keep an eye on the players and the mood of the room and see who was betting what. He was, of course, looking out for ship owners. Somehow, Jin and Kame had both wound up playing for the ship, the result of a slight mix-up at the tables, and it was the last hand either of them played that night.

It wasn't until they'd made it to the spaceport, found their new ship and let themselves in with Jin's lock pick - there hadn't been time to pry the code out of the smuggler before he'd gone berserk - that they'd discovered that perhaps they hadn't done so well out of the deal after all.

Still, it hadn't been too bad. They'd shared three to a cabin before, and they could do it again if they had to. They'd all handed in their notice upon hearing about the poker game, not daring to consider that perhaps it wouldn't work out - it was all or nothing, now or never. They had some money now, but it wouldn't last.

Luckily, the Precious One's previous owner hadn't been lying about the ship's arms. Koki had spent a good couple of hours working all the weaponry into some sort of demented rap, accompanied by Nakamaru's beatboxing and Kame's enthusiastic hand dances; entertainment value notwithstanding, it made for quite the intimidation factor.

Which was exactly what they needed. They left the Inner Planets altogether, picking off ships who were on their way out of the Sol System. Pluto was a goldmine for bandits, rogues and pirates of all kinds, and with his well-developed network of contacts, Ueda could usually ferret out the most profitable targets.

He and Kame fought, even over the poker game plan. Ueda was used to making the arrangements himself; Kame didn't care to hand over control to anyone else. He'd had to accept it in school, and then in LIPS, but now he was a free man he was damned if he was going to risk falling prey to other people's screw-ups.

Koki was argumentative too, because he and Nakamaru had been at this game longer than the others and he didn't see why Kame, not only the youngest but until recently working on the other side of the law, should get to make decisions for them.

And any argument involving Kame involved Jin too, whether they liked it or not, because somehow they'd become linked in everyone else's minds. Both had unusual backgrounds, compared to the others, and it seemed that their opinions carried slightly more weight.

Or perhaps it was simply that they yelled the loudest.

But the arguments were quickly resolved, at least. Democracy won out in the end, no matter how much yelling was involved...though a good portion of this was due to Nakamaru's peacekeeping nature and Taguchi's total inability to sustain an argument without making a pun. Circumstances, close quarters and history threw them together and forced them to make things work.

The only thing that *wasn't* working was the relationship between Jin and Kame. Not the friendship - that, now that they knew each other better, came a great deal easier to both of them - but opportunities for quiet time alone were even rarer than they had been in Lunacy, particularly when they chose opposing sleep shifts.

Jin decided it was a privacy problem. That, he thought, was why they needed more cabins.

Kame's opinion differed. On the Yunaka, it had been simple enough to give in to his desires, to kiss Jin and promise him more because everything was temporary, everything was coming to an end. But now, after spending three months sharing a cabin with Jin (and Nakamaru), Kame wasn't so sure he wanted that.

Oh, he wanted _Jin_ \- that wasn't an issue. But they were starting to build a new - and fairly successful, if unorthodox - life for themselves, and it was certain that they were going to be together for a long time to come. After every fight the crew had, they trusted each other a little more, and that kind of trust was hard to come by. Did Kame really want to risk that? What if things went horribly, horribly wrong and they decided they liked Jin better and Kame had to go because Jin didn't want him around? What then?

If the tension in the air was bad for Jin and Kame, it was becoming unbearable for the others. Once again, it was down to Ueda to fix things. He persuaded Nakamaru to fly the ship to Neptune's levitating capital of Poseidon, home of the famous Floating Bridge that connected the two halves of the city. The entire structure was protected by shields from the planet's gases and powerful winds, but only the very brave dared walk across.

It was more common to take a transport across the bridge, where you could close your eyes and let other people be terrified on your behalf as you hurtled off into the blue...but Ueda knew Kame wanted to walk across.

They landed in Poseidon-East; the spaceport wasn't far from one of Ueda's favourite bars, Trident. It was also close to the bridge entrance. It wasn't until they were safely docked that anyone bothered to tell Jin and Kame where they were, seeing as it was a surprise and even Jin's comely pout wasn't enough to persuade anyone to talk.

"The four of us are going drinking at Trident," Ueda announced, pulling up a local map on the screen so the other two would know where to find them. "We'll probably be out for a while."

"Why just you guys?" Jin asked. "Do we have to stay and guard the ship or something? Isn't that what spaceport security's for?"

Nakamaru grinned. "Nope, you can go out too. We thought you might want to go sightseeing, though. Kame wants to walk across the Floating Bridge, right?"

"I do, but..."

Jin was impressed. There was no real risk of falling, of course, but the barriers were near-transparent, so he'd read. He couldn't let himself be outdone by Kame in the bravery stakes, at any rate. "I want to walk across too," he said.

"Perfect," said Ueda. "See you tomorrow."

Five minutes later, Jin and Kame were bundled up warm (the shields could only do so much against Neptune's usual temperatures, which were in the realm of minus two hundred degrees Celsius) and ushered out the door. They followed the signs to the pedestrian portion of the bridge, which was above the transporter portion and considerably narrower.

"Doesn't look like we'll have much company," Jin said nervously, casting a glance round the area. There was a young woman sitting on a bench, eyes flicking between the bridge and her tourist map as if she was trying to decide whether or not to brave it, and a middle-aged couple staggered off the bridge in the opposite direction.

"If you wanted company, you should've gone to the bar with the others."

"And leave you out here all by yourself?"

"What, are you going to save me if I fall off the bridge?"

Jin smiled sheepishly. "I'd probably fall off it with you," he admitted. "Too mesmerised by the view."

"Then you'd better hold onto me," Kame said. He reached for Jin's mitten with his own, assuming that Jin's hand was buried under there somewhere. It felt like there was an entire pillow stuffed inside the mitten.

They began to walk along the bridge, sticking to the centre. There were no other pedestrians to get in their way, and walking in the centre felt marginally safer than along the edges, where, unless you could feel the barriers beneath your fingertips, you got the impression you could fall off the side at any moment.

And with those mittens, feeling _anything_ was impossible.

Kame had read about the Floating Bridge in a travel book when he was a kid, hoping that one day his family would have enough money for a holiday to Poseidon so he could see it for himself. As he grew older, he knew it was impossible, but that didn't stop him from wanting to go. Neptune had its core of rock and ice hidden far below the liquid mantle, and even that was buried far too deep for Kame to see. The gaseous atmosphere, tinted a brilliant azure, seemed to go on forever when Kame looked at the pictures.

And now he was standing there himself, staring out into endless blue. The shields kept the frequent storms from the bridge, pushing the hydrogen, helium and other gases outside so an artificial Earth atmosphere could be maintained. Kame could watch the clouds zoom past, moving at incredible speed, and wonder what it would feel like to catch one.

"Amazing," he murmured.

Though he'd spoken softly, Jin heard him. "I've never seen anything like it," he said. "It's so..." He couldn't find a word big enough to encompass his thoughts. Space was infinite, when he put on a suit and ventured outside the ship, but he'd never stood (relatively) unprotected like this, out in the middle of...everything.

Kame attempted to squeeze his hand. "I know. I can't describe it either. I could take pictures and look at them later and the colour would be just as beautiful, but the wonder would be gone."

There was a sign to mark the midpoint of the bridge, along with a bench for the weary traveller, or for those who simply wanted to sit and watch the clouds from a lower vantage point. Jin wandered over to it, tugging Kame with him. They were in no rush.

"You know why we're here, don't you?" Kame said when they'd sat down. "Ueda set us up."

"He's good at doing that. They're probably all sitting in the bar right now, three drinks down and laughing about how they're inside in the warm and we're out here-"

"-having one of the most incredible experiences in the universe," Kame finished. ""I always wanted to travel, you know. This was one of the things on my list."

"I have a list too - I just don't know what's on it."

Kame laughed into his muffler. "Not until you get there, I guess. Is this on your list now?"

"It probably always was."

"Good. I like to think we want some of the same things."

"What else..." Jin liked to think of himself as straightforward - blunt, even - and when he'd decided what he wanted, he didn't have a problem asking for it. The problem lay with what Kame wanted. "What else is on your list?"

"Hmm..." Kame leaned in a little, so he and Jin were pressed side-to-side - albeit with about six layers of clothing between them. "There are places I want to go, of course. There are things I want to do - like go to every baseball game of the next Inner Planet Series - and people I want to meet."

"You've already met me," Jin said smugly. "Everyone else pales in comparison."

More laughter. "I admit, you're in a league of your own, Jin."

"I'd rather be in league with you."

"Don't you start with the puns, please. One Taguchi Junnosuke is more than enough."

"I'm being serious," Jin said. His palms sweated under the mittens, soaking the fabric. It was a good thing Kame couldn't tell. "Look, I'm still no good at talking about this kind of stuff, but you've asked me a couple of times so I figure it's my turn to pop the question."

Kame's eyebrows disappeared under his woolly cap. "I know the guidebook says this is a popular spot for a) suicides and b) proposals, but I'm only nineteen, Jin. I'm not really thinking about marriage right now."

"Marriage?" Jin realised what he'd said and shook his head vigorously. "Oh! No, not that question. I mean...um...do you want me? Not right here, or anything," he'd never tried outdoor sex, and didn't plan to start experimenting in subzero temperatures, "but just, you know, in general."

"Jin, if I didn't think our lips would freeze together I would happily kiss you until we both passed out."

"Then why haven't you?" Jin blurted out. "We've been living together for three months now and you haven't even tried to peek at me in the shower or anything."

"I did try once," Kame confessed. "But I got Taguchi by mistake. He invited me to join him. I was drunk, but not *that* drunk, so I declined. Anyway, that's not the point.

"You need your freedom more than anything else, right? You love your friends, and having company, and being comfortable, and lazing around with food and action holovids, but most of all you love having the freedom to make your own choices.

"So what if one day you decide that you don't like being tied down?"

Jin gulped. "Me being bound to a chair when we met - that was just for the interrogation, right? You're not really into bondage, are you?"

"I haven't had much chance to find out what I'm into," Kame said mildly. "But I don't think you need to worry. What I'm trying to say is: if you change your mind one day - or even if I do, come to that - and worst case scenario, we end up being unable to stand each other, what happens to us all then?

"I like being part of this crew, Jin. This _family_. I told you before: it's not the ship, it's the people on it."

"So you'd rather we drove each other and everyone else around us completely crazy?"

"Well, when you put it that way..."

When Kame's sentence trailed off and he didn't say anything further, Jin figured they weren't going to get anywhere by just sitting there. The sooner they got up, the sooner they could get indoors.

"Come on. Let's get moving again before I turn into an icicle."

Kame slowly uncurled himself from the bench. "All right. Let's finish this." He began walking towards Poseidon-West.

"Oi, Kame, hang on! We've done half-way, so we could turn round and go back, couldn't we?"

"I want to go across. We can take a transport on the way back if you want, though. We'll get the view from lower down, and it'll be a lot faster."

Jin didn't argue.

\-----

They did take the transport back, in the end. What had taken them over an hour to walk was less than a quarter that, and it wasn't long before they let themselves back into their ship.

"Drink?" Kame called from the tiny kitchen unit.

Jin was still busy peeling off layers. Most of them fell on Nakamaru's bed, since he wasn't going to be back for hours yet. "Anything hot!" he yelled back.

Kame appeared soon after with large, steaming mugs of hot chocolate, topped with cream, sprinkles and tiny little marshmallows. Jin wasn't quite sure how you were supposed to drink it without getting it all over your nose, but he was prepared to have a go.

"Just don't tell Koki I raided his marshmallow stash," Kame said. He plumped down against his pillows, tucking his feet under the covers, and sighed in satisfaction. "This is a nice vacation."

Without bothering to ask permission, Jin crossed the room with his own mug to climb in beside Kame. When Kame glanced at him out of the corner of his eye, Jin said, "Room for two?"

"You spill hot chocolate on my bed and you're a dead man, Akanishi."

Jin giggled. "How do you feel about necrophilia?"

Kame tried to give him a stern glare, but keeping a straight face was impossible. Besides, Jin looked adorable bobbing for marshmallows.

Hell, Jin looked adorable most of the time. Or cute. Or sexy. Or just plain hot. Or... Kame swallowed a marshmallow of his own and took a deep breath. He liked looking at Jin. Whether Jin was being childish or adult, whether he was being sweet or silly, whether he was being a lazy brat or a seductive flirt, whether he was being a dear friend or a darling lover... It wasn't because Jin was gorgeous, though he was, and that was certainly appealing. But beneath the beautiful exterior was someone Kame had a hard time keeping his hands off of, and that had nothing to do with looks.

"You didn't answer me," he reminded Jin. "What happens?"

"Let's say, in some crazy parallel universe, that you and I had such a terrible breakup that we couldn't even remain friends and if we stayed in the same ship any longer it would explode. Is that the worst case scenario you were talking about? Because in that case, I'd have to be some kind of idiot who didn't deserve you in the first place."

"Deserve me?"

The hot chocolate didn't do anything for the sudden dryness in Jin's mouth. "The first time we ever spoke, you sang with me even though you were on duty and surrounded by people who hated your guts."

"I even danced a little."

"Right. And then when you were in the shower room with Ishida, you stood up to him even though he was going to kill you."

Kame shrugged. "I didn't have anything to lose. Anyway, he didn't kill me. Everything worked out fine."

Jin licked his lips nervously. He wished he'd asked Kame for a cold drink instead, then maybe his mouth wouldn't feel like a desert. "If you believed that then, why can't you believe me now? If I say I want to be with you for the rest of my life, that I won't suddenly decide I've had enough and want to get out, won't you trust me? Please?"

"Don't make that kind of a commitment so soon. Look at me, Jin. I made a commitment to keep law and order, and to send money home to my family, and I've broken them both by turning to piracy."

"Hey, you could still send money home - just don't tell your family where you got it!"

"You're not really listening to me, are you?"

"I'm trying but it's kind of distracting when you're rubbing your foot up and down my leg."

Kame peered under the covers to discover his left foot had developed a mind of its own, one that had a fondness for Jin's calves and more than a passing interest in Jin's thighs. "I don't suppose you'd believe I didn't realise I was doing that?"

"Oh, I'll believe it if you want me to," Jin said, a seductive smile spreading across his face, "but only if you don't stop."

There was only so much Kame's self-control could take. He gulped down the last of his drink - no sense leaving the incriminating marshmallows for Koki to find - and set his mug aside. Jin did the same, swiping his tongue across his lower lip to catch a stray trickle.

And that was when Kame's self-control disappeared completely.

There weren't so many layers left between them, and in a warm, chocolate-scented cabin, it was no great hardship to remove the rest, tangling themselves up in the covers and each other as they twisted and turned to peel off clothing. Kame rained kisses anywhere he could reach, beginning gently with Jin's forehead, then a playful peck on the tip of his nose, and trailing down towards his mouth for firmer, deeper, _hotter_ kisses. Jin's hands roamed along Kame's back, urging him lower.

"So this is what you're like when you can touch me too," Kame whispered, burrowing into Jin's hair. He nuzzled closer, working his way down the side of Jin's neck and round, but pulled back in alarm when Jin squawked and clutched his collarbone.

"I'm really ticklish there," he explained. "Seriously, just...don't touch it."

"Sorry." Kame planted an apologetic kiss firmly on Jin's lips. "Anywhere else I should avoid?"

Given where Kame's hands were skimming, Jin thought it was a reasonable question. "Anything else is fine."

"Just checking."

Kame began afresh, giving Jin's collarbones a wide berth, and while there were no more squawks there were other, more pleasurable sounds to make up for it. Soft moans when Kame's hands began stroking, impatient whines when they stilled, and desperate cries when they completed their task.

"You're messing up my sheets," Kame teased.

"And whose fault is that? Huh?" Jin wrapped his legs round Kame's to roll them over. "Since they're already ruined, it doesn't matter if we make them worse, right?"

He ground down hard against Kame, loving the breathless gasp he received in response, and the whimpers that followed it when Jin's months of frustration made themselves only too apparent in his movements. He didn't mean to be clumsy, he didn't mean to be violent. But it didn't matter, because nothing about this was perfect and everything about it was _right_.

"I see somebody's ready for Round Two," Kame said when he got his breath back, and they were both satisfyingly sticky.

"You can take credit for that. Did you know I turned down a millionaire for you?"

"Jin, at the rate we're going I think we'll all be millionaires before we die. And since that's not going to be any time soon..."

A few hours didn't entirely make up for months of frustration and denial, but they were a good start. Jin fell asleep first, pressed against Kame's side and looking thoroughly ravished, sweat-soaked hair sticking to flushed skin and the marks of Kame's clenched fingers still visible on his hips.

Kame imagined he didn't look much better. He could see lovebites dotting his chest, and dried white flakes were everywhere. It was really too bad the sheets were lilac. The oil had gotten everywhere too, so the whole cabin smelt of apples and chocolate and sweat and sex. Nakamaru was never going to speak to them again, he knew it.

Was it worth the risk, to be with Jin like this? To take it one day at a time, not worrying about how it would affect the rest of the crew? Not, Kame considered, that anyone else seemed bothered by it. Not when they were actively trying to throw them together. Of course, that might just have been an effort to defuse the tension, but he thought their friends meant well.

Sharing a cabin was going to prove problematic, though. Kame rubbed his cheek against Jin's hair and drifted into a soothing sleep. His last conscious thought was: they definitely needed a bigger ship.

\-----

"Oi, Akanishi, if you've been at my marshmallows again I'll...uh..."

Kame cracked open one sleepy eyelid to find Koki standing in the doorway, staring with equal parts fascination and horror at the bed. Jin, still asleep, remained unaware of the intrusion.

"I was the one who raided the marshmallows," Kame said quietly, conscious that he and Jin were both naked and only partially covered by a heavy quilt, and any idiot could've worked out what had taken place between them. "Sorry."

"Uh..." Koki's face would've given Jupiter's Red Spot a run for its money. "It's okay if it was you," he muttered, and ran out before his nose started bleeding.

Ueda stuck his head round the door, smiling brightly and none the worse for wear for having spent all night at a bar. "Morning! I wanted to get you guys some souvenirs while we were in the city, but I couldn't decide what to buy and-"

When Kame's pillow caught him in the mouth, Ueda made a strategic withdrawal.

"Next?" Kame enquired, but the door remained closed. Evidently, the other two had been warned by Koki.

"Is it safe to open my eyes yet?"

"You were awake?"

"I just heard something about marshmallows," Jin explained. "But I figured if they thought we were both awake, they'd make us get up."

"We have to get up at some point," Kame said. "Even if we weren't sharing a cabin, I'd still have to wash the bedding."

Jin slowly pushed himself up into a sitting position, wincing slightly at the way his body protested after such an exhausting night, and surveyed the damage. They'd somehow managed to tear one of Kame's pillows and there were small pieces of foam littering the floor. Jin thought that might've been his fault - he vaguely recalled scrabbling for something soft, curling his fingers in the fabric and digging his nails in as Kame found that certain spot inside him and everything went white.

"We did make a mess," he agreed. "And I think we just traumatised Koki."

Kame grinned. "He'll get over it - once his nose stops bleeding, anyway. But we definitely need a bigger ship. One with at least six cabins."

"Seven," Jin corrected. "We've got enough clothing between the six of us that we need one just for closet space."

"It's tough to keep up with the fashions on so many different worlds, and I think a ship's captain should always look good."

"I look good in almost anything," Jin said.

"I meant me, not you!"

"Since when are you captain?"

"Since when are *you*?"

The door slid open again to reveal the other four. "If it keeps you out of trouble you can *both* be captain!" Ueda said.

Nakamaru shuddered to see the wreckage of the cabin. "None of us can win an argument against Jin anyway, and somehow his weird ideas always work out in the end."

Koki had a tissue pressed to his nose, so his words were a trifle indistinct. "And Kame's really good at getting things done."

Taguchi's grin was even more blinding than usual. "Captains Kamenashi and Akanishi, yoroshiku ne!"

Behind his back, Nakamaru whispered to Ueda, "Is this like the old saying about promoting idiots to management positions to keep them out of harm's way?"

Ueda nodded slyly. "Something like that. But I do want to protect them."

"You're not the only one."

"Guys, can you please go away for a bit?" Jin begged. "We need to take a shower and-"

Jin was forced to swallow the rest of his sentence when Taguchi, Koki, Ueda and Nakamaru all threw themselves on the bed. Kame, who'd seen it coming, had managed to escape being crushed by rolling to the side, but he'd misjudged the edge of the bed and ended up falling on the floor, taking half the quilt with him and leaving Jin with not a hell of a lot for cover.

Between Kame's pained giggles (the floor was both uncarpeted and unforgiving), Jin's shrieks (getting tickled when he was fully clothed was bad enough, but when he was defenseless...), and slightly-sadistic laughter from their four friends, the cabin fair rang with high-volume humour and warmth. It wasn't until much later, when Ueda had declared mercy, that Jin and Kame were finally allowed to get up.

"And if you're not out of the shower by lunchtime, I'm turning off the hot water," Ueda warned them on his way out the door.

"Don't boss your captains around," Kame joked.

"Oh, and Ueda?" Jin said. "Our first order is-"

"Don't tell me," Ueda said, waving his hands. "I know, I know. Find us a bigger ship!"


End file.
